Concept
dysfunction
In Merton’s terms, observed consequences that lessen a system’s adjustment or persistence.
According to Merton, functions are observed consequences that contribute to a system’s adjustment; dysfunctions are consequences that lessen that adjustment. There may also be irrelevant consequences that do not touch the system at all.
A pattern usually has both functional and dysfunctional consequences, so the real work is to work out their net balance. Consequences are also always assessed for a unit: the same pattern may be functional for one subgroup and dysfunctional for another.
A dysfunction may be manifest or latent. The best-known example in media studies is Lazarsfeld and Merton’s idea of the “narcotizing dysfunction”: a flood of information may push people to settle for being informed instead of acting.
Example
If a news site’s comment restrictions reduce hate speech but also lead to a “censorship” row, that second consequence may be an unintended dysfunction.