Dear colleagues,

My psychologist collaborator and I are writing about idioms and phrases that journalists and other writers/speakers sometimes use to describe systems that are underlain by feedback loops, but without using the actual term “feedback loop.”

In English, some examples would be:
* vicious cycle
* virtuous cycle
* doom loop
* more and more and more   / worse and worse and worse
* chicken and egg situation
* stuck in a rut
* cutting down the tall poppies

More about English-language instances are in our article on “Linguistic clues for spotting feedback loops in the wild” by Kim Kastens & Tim Shipley, in the Creative Learning Exchange Newsletter at: http://static.clexchange.org/ftp/documents/x-curricular/CC2021_LinguisticClues.pdf

Are any of you familiar with phrases or idioms in other languages that convey the idea of a feedback loop system?  If so, I’d love to hear whatever you might be able to share about the phrase, its literal translation, and how it tends to be used.

Thank you for considering this request.

Kim
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Dr. Kim A. Kastens
Special Research Scientist
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University