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Affec­tive Death Spiral

TagLast edit: Oct 3, 2020, 3:08 AM by Swimmer963 (Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg)

An affective death spiral (or happy death spiral) occurs when positive attributes of a theory, person, or organization combine with the Halo effect in a feedback loop, resulting in the subject of the affective death spiral being held in higher and higher regard. In effect, every positive thing said about the subject results in more than one additional nice thing to say about the subject on average. This cascades like a nuclear chain reaction. This process creates theories that are believed for their own sake and organizations that exist solely to perpetuate themselves, especially when combined with the social dynamics of groupthink. Affective death spirals are thus a primary cause of cultishness.

The same process can also occur with negative beliefs instead of positive, leading to a death spiral of hate.

Blog posts

See also

When None Dare Urge Restraint

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 8, 2007, 11:09 PM
120 points
123 comments2 min readLW link

Re­sist the Happy Death Spiral

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 4, 2007, 1:15 AM
91 points
47 comments6 min readLW link

Guardians of Ayn Rand

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 18, 2007, 6:24 AM
118 points
122 comments5 min readLW link

Ra­tion­al­ity Read­ing Group: Part J: Death Spirals

Gram_StoneSep 24, 2015, 2:31 AM
7 points
4 comments4 min readLW link

Every Cause Wants To Be A Cult

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 12, 2007, 3:04 AM
125 points
41 comments3 min readLW link

Un­crit­i­cal Supercriticality

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 4, 2007, 4:40 PM
116 points
174 comments4 min readLW link

Cul­tish Countercultishness

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 30, 2007, 12:53 AM
103 points
32 comments9 min readLW link

Don’t Re­vere The Bearer Of Good Info

CarlShulmanMar 21, 2009, 11:22 PM
126 points
72 comments3 min readLW link

[SEQ RERUN] Affec­tive Death Spirals

MinibearRexNov 14, 2011, 5:34 AM
6 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

Affec­tive Death Spirals

Eliezer YudkowskyDec 2, 2007, 4:44 PM
109 points
46 comments2 min readLW link

My Child­hood Death Spiral

Eliezer YudkowskySep 15, 2008, 3:42 AM
70 points
106 comments4 min readLW link

Eight Short Stud­ies On Excuses

Scott AlexanderApr 20, 2010, 11:01 PM
844 points
253 comments10 min readLW link