What Is the Meaning of Snowball Effect?
The snowball effect describes what happens when something small or insignificant gains momentum and quickly becomes large and more significant. The most common analogy used in this situation is when a small snowball rolls down a hill, gaining not only speed but also surface area. The results of this effect can be either positive or negative, depending on the nature of the particular scenario.
Other People Are Reading
-
Definition
-
The snowball effect describes an entity or situation in which something originally small and relatively insignificant increases exponentially in size and does so at a swift pace, eventually engulfing everything in its path. The snowball effect is unique compared to something with a normal growth in that it describes an exponential growth in momentum until it reaches a large size.
Positive Effects
-
The effects or end results of the snowball effect can either be positive or negative, depending on the individual situation. For example, small actions performed over a continued period of time can add up to create a positive result. For example, if you begin working for a company and show that you are a hard worker through timely, proficient and creative discharge of your daily duties, you could be promoted to a more prestigious position that requires increased responsibility and is rewarded with a higher salary.
-
Negative Effects
-
The snowball effect often is used in the context of weight gain, which is usually considered negative or undesirable. It is particularly used to describe when young people gain weight as they go through a natural growth cycle. At the onset of puberty in middle school, some individuals may be very thin, but as they reach high school, their body mass increases to the point that they become overweight or obese. This description also pertains to adults who increase in weight due to excessive eating and lack of exercise.
Misconceptions
-
The meaning of the snowball effect is sometimes confused with similar sounding phases, yet its meaning is distinctive. For example, the domino effect is a reaction where one small change causes a similar change to occur nearby, which then causes a chain of additional small changes; the butterfly effect describes how small differences in something may eventually produce large variations in the same system over the long term. The debt-snowball method is a form of debt management where extra cash is used to pay debts with the smallest amount owed, eventually leading to payment of larger debts.
Expert Insight
-
One way that the snowball effect can be seen in a historical context is by examining the 2008 recession in the United States. The government responded by borrowing money until investors became anxious, thus dropping government bonds, which drove prices lower and rates higher. Unfortunately, that caused the government to decrease spending and prioritize paying back investors, which made the economy worse, creating more unemployment, debts and thus increasing the national deficit.
-
References
- Photo Credit Snowball image by Vladimir Krivsun from Fotolia.com
