The looping effects of psychological theories: From anomaly to opportunity

Looping effects were introduced by philosopher Ian Hacking to refer to the two-way interactive relationship between scientific classifications and the people classified. This article extends the concept beyond classification to consider how psychological theories shape and transform their phenomena through looping effects, rather than merely mirroring them. These effects have been conceptualized as destabilizing, problematic, and anomalous. In contrast, we argue that looping effects should be brought within our theorizing and harnessed. To this end, we introduce a two-by-two typology of looping effects, differentiating between weakening versus strengthening effects and intended versus unintended effects. Looping can lead some theories to be resisted and thus weakened (e.g., persuasion, nudging) and other theories to be adopted and thus strengthened (e.g., mnemonic or metacognitive strategies). While most theories begin with unintended looping effects, they often develop towards intentional looping effects (e.g., aimed at weakening cognitive biases or strengthening heuristics). We argue that looping effects are a significant yet under-studied source of variance in human behavior. Psychological theories do not merely refer to causal mechanisms; theories can also be causes of human behavior. We make practical suggestions for incorporating looping effects into psychological theory, thereby enhancing its robustness and societal relevance.