A revenge effect is the ironic, unintended effect of some action or technology, according to Edward Tenner in the book Why Things Bite Back: The Revenge of Unintended Consequences. Examples of revenge effects are:
- Filter-tip cigarettes often increase nicotine intake because smokers inhale them more deeply.
- Telecommuting often ties workers to their work more closely because work can be done at any hour of the day or night.
- Car alarms can sometimes lead to a car being damaged by angry neighbors who want the alarm noise stopped.
Tenner notes, "A revenge effect is not the same thing as a
side effect. If a
cancer chemotherapy treatment causes
baldness, that is not a revenge effect; but if it induces another, equally
lethal cancer, that is a revenge effect." He lists several sub-categories of revenge effects:
- rearranging effect
- A revenge effect that comes from relocating things, such as a case where builders were legally required to relocate endangered tortoises when their habitat was destroyed, but it turns out that the tortoises spread a virus in their new environment and killed more animals than were saved.
- recomplicating effect
- A revenge effect that arises from supposedly simplifying technology. For example, push-button telephones made it easier to dial a phone number, but allowed the introduction of voice-mail systems which forced users to dial many more numbers than they would have originally had to.
- recongesting effect
- A revenge effect arising from a supposedly unlimited space becoming overcrowded (such as the problems of finding electromagnetic spectrum space for all the people and organizations which want to transmit in it).
- regenerating effect
- A revenge effect that acts like a mythological Hydra, where "solving" one problem merely breaks it into smaller pieces. An example is a missile being broken into pieces when it is "intercepted" -- apparently a piece of a Scud missile the size of a soda can is enough to punch through five inches of concrete, so the damage from an intercepted missile is merely spread over a larger area.
- repeating effect
- A revenge effect arising from a "time-saving" device, such as people doing laundry more often because of washing machines than they would have washing the clothes by hand or sending them out to a laundry.
- resurging effect
- "That which does not kill me, makes me stronger." This revenge effect happens when the attempt to get rid of something ends up eradicating its enemies too -- when insecticide kills the predators of the fire ants, the fire ants which survive can build bigger colonies without being eaten.
And Tenner also points out the occasional "
reverse revenge effect," a positive unintended consequence, such as animals thriving in former
artillery ranges because the shells and waste have kept people away.