Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

044 Death Spiral

A phenomenon in which a social organization persists in behaviors that lead to self-destruction.

Army ants navigate largely by following pheromone trails left by other army ants. Under certain conditions, these trails become crossed, forming a closed loop. Ants caught in such loops will often circle the never-ending trail until they die from exhaustion. Thus, the term death spiral. But the death-spiral phenomenon is not unique to ants. The pattern can manifest in any social organization — including human social organizations — in which members persist in behaviors that inevitably lead to self-destruction.1

Death spirals occur when members of a social organization rigidly adhere to strategies that are counterproductive to their ...