Intended consequences are the planned outcomes designers or decision-makers expect a system to produce. Unintended consequences are unplanned outcomes that emerge when changes affect interconnected parts of the system.
This distinction is part of the systems concept in syllabus point 2.6C, which states that changes within a system of interdependent connections may generate intended and unintended consequences. It applies to both SL and HL Digital Society.
A system contains interacting elements such as people, digital technologies, data, institutions and rules. When one element changes, effects can spread through the system. Some support the original purpose; others may be beneficial, harmful or mixed.
| Type of consequence | Meaning and question to ask |
|---|---|
| Intended | A planned effect. What outcome was the change designed to produce? |
| Unintended | An unplanned effect. What occurred because every interaction was not anticipated? |
Consider the Strava Global Heatmap. System: Strava used location data from fitness-tracking devices to map popular exercise routes. Example specifics: In 2018, researchers found that patterns on the publicly available heatmap could reveal the locations and layouts of military sites, including sites in remote areas.
Impacts and implications: The intended consequence was to help users discover routes and understand exercise patterns. An unintended impact was exposing sensitive location information associated with military personnel. This created implications for privacy, surveillance and responsible use of aggregated data, since data without individual names can still reveal sensitive patterns when combined and visualized.
The common misconception is that an unintended consequence must be negative. It may be positive, negative or mixed; its defining feature is that it was not planned.
In an IB response, identify the system's purpose, explain connections between its elements, and trace planned and unplanned outcomes. For explain, include causes. For evaluate, weigh consequences for at least two affected stakeholder groups rather than merely listing effects.
