What Is a Feedback Loop?

Before diving into feedback loops in communication, it’s important to define what we mean by feedback. Feedback is the response people give to information they receive or to actions taken by others. Typically, when people see a reaction to their words or actions, they also “react to the reaction,” providing their own feedback. This creates a back-and-forth exchange, forming a kind of “loop.”

This “reaction to a reaction,” or feedback in response to feedback, forms what psychologists call a feedback loop. The basic structure includes a stimulus (words, actions, information), a reaction, and a “reaction to the reaction”—this is a short feedback loop. If the communication continues, with ongoing reactions and feedback, as often happens in debates or discussions, the loop can become a tangled web of opinions and responses.

In summary, a feedback loop is a set of interconnected logical cause-and-effect relationships that either strengthen or weaken conditions or behaviors within a system. Different types of feedback loops lead to different outcomes: they can either amplify or dampen conditions or behaviors within the system.

Types of Feedback Loops

The two main types of feedback loops are:

• Positive feedback loop: This amplifies conditions or behaviors within a system. In other words, it’s a reinforcing feedback loop.
• Negative feedback loop: This weakens or corrects conditions or behaviors within a system. It acts as a balancing or corrective feedback loop.

For example, if a person receives positive feedback and approval for their actions, they are likely to “keep it up” and even increase their efforts—studying harder, earning more, taking better photos, sewing more beautiful clothes, and so on. If a person receives negative feedback, they are forced to adjust their behavior; otherwise, they may face consequences like damaged relationships or even job loss. This is how negative feedback loops work in psychology.

These patterns apply not only to individuals but also to groups, teams, organizations, and companies. For instance, a company that receives positive feedback in the form of increased sales will ramp up production and introduce new services. If it receives negative feedback, such as customer complaints and declining sales, management must take corrective action to improve quality or find new ways to meet customer needs.

In addition to positive and negative feedback loops, there are also anticipatory (leading) feedback loops and delayed feedback loops:

• Anticipatory feedback loop: This is “getting ahead of the game”—identifying and addressing weaknesses before they become problems, without waiting for feedback from others.
• Delayed feedback loop: This focuses on dealing with issues as they arise, without trying to anticipate every possible outcome.

For long-term projects, anticipatory feedback loops are preferable because the longer the timeline, the greater the risk of changing circumstances. For short-term projects or rapidly changing situations, delayed feedback loops are often the only practical option.

Feedback Loops Beyond Communication

The concept of a feedback loop is used not only in psychology and communication but also in biology, physiology, and technology. For example, in biology, you might read about how hormone secretion is regulated by feedback loops. In IT, terms like “loopback address” or “network feedback loop” are common, especially in network equipment testing.

The term “feedback loop” originally came from engineering and was later adopted by psychology. American mathematician Norbert Wiener, a founder of cybernetics and artificial intelligence theory, was among the first to discuss feedback loops in technology. He used simple examples like steering a boat or bicycle: when you turn the wheel, you observe the direction and adjust accordingly, creating a feedback loop.

In more complex systems, feedback loops can be intricate, but the basic principle remains the same. Cybernetics pioneers suggested using the term “feedback loop” in other sciences to describe regulation and self-regulation mechanisms in social and ecological systems.

How Does a Feedback Loop Work?

At the core of a feedback loop in communication is a psychological set or mindset—a person’s unconscious internal state based on past experience and a tendency to act in certain ways in typical situations. This mindset shapes a person’s attitude toward objects, concepts, and situations, and ultimately determines their behavior.

Closely related to this is the concept of perceptual filters—mental mechanisms that sort incoming information. We constantly receive vast amounts of data, whether we want to or not, and we automatically evaluate what we see, hear, and feel. Perceptual filters act as “quick response templates,” saving us time and energy by allowing us to react to familiar situations without reevaluating them each time.

For example, some people see clouds as bad weather, while others see a break from the summer heat. The same situation can trigger different emotions in different people—anger, fear, or indifference—depending on their filters and mindset.

Psychologists describe the feedback loop process as follows: a fact passes through perceptual filters, is interpreted, triggers an emotion, and leads to action (or inaction, which is also a form of action). The person who initiated the interaction then receives feedback, and the loop continues as long as the interaction lasts.

People tend to ignore information that doesn’t fit their established worldview. For example, “rose-colored glasses” is a common filter where someone sees everything positively and ignores real threats. Conversely, “gray glasses” or “apathy glasses” filter out positive information, making everything seem negative.

Where and How to Use Feedback Loops

Feedback loops are present in all areas of life. In business, a company’s future depends on the feedback it receives from customers and internal team dynamics. Hierarchies between managers and employees, as well as horizontal relationships among team members, are all shaped by feedback loops.

Even among equally dedicated employees, differences in perception can lead to misunderstandings. For example, an accountant unfamiliar with design may not understand why a designer urgently needs quarterly data for a presentation, while the designer is frustrated by the delay.

Managers often assume employees should understand their instructions without explanation, which is why business literature emphasizes the importance of clear communication and requesting feedback to ensure understanding.

In the book “Seeing the Forest for the Trees: A Manager’s Guide to Applying Systems Thinking,” entire sections are devoted to feedback loops and their importance for effective work. The book illustrates how unaddressed feedback loops can create cycles of stress and overload in the workplace, as well as more complex loops involving customers and advertisers in a media company.

Feedback loops are equally important in personal relationships. For example, a husband’s work fatigue may mean he doesn’t want to move furniture at his wife’s request, but she may interpret his refusal as a sign of poor attitude. If both partners are tired and expect support from each other, the feedback loop can quickly lead to conflict unless someone breaks the cycle.

In summary, feedback loops in communication serve many important functions. Depending on their type, they can reinforce, correct, or balance behaviors and conditions.

Key areas where feedback loops are especially important:

• Business: To better meet customer needs and increase sales.
• Organizations: For effective teamwork and achieving the best results.
• Personal life: To build healthy, harmonious relationships.
• Education: For monitoring learning progress and effective teaching.
• Society: To maintain social balance and stability.

Feedback loops in society are a vast topic. For example, there are feedback loops between government and citizens: the government makes decisions, people react, and the government must adjust if it wants to avoid unrest. There are also feedback loops between different social groups, such as generational divides or debates over environmental policy versus industrial needs.

Feedback loops create complex webs of interaction whenever a topic becomes relevant, with different groups responding in different ways. For example, environmentalists may want to shut down all factories to save the environment, while business owners understand that industry is essential for society and that green energy alone can’t meet industrial needs.