Loops that amplify, reinforce, self-multiply, or snowball a stock level. They can lead to positive cycles of increasing stock or negative cycles of decreasing stock.

Runaway Loops - Reinforcing Feedback

Negative feedback, also known as balancing feedback, is a stabilizing process where any deviation from an equilibrium triggers subsequent changes in the opposite direction, counteracting the initial disturbance. This dampening effect pushes the system back towards its stable state. The presence of negative feedback is what makes an equilibrium stable.

Negative Feedback (Balancing Feedback)

Positive feedback, also known as reinforcing feedback, describes a process where a small deviation from an equilibrium is amplified by forces that push the system even further from its original state. This type of feedback leads to instability, as it reinforces movement away from the starting point.

Positive Feedback (Reinforcing Feedback)

- Stabilizing loops - Balancing Feedback
- Runaway loops - Reinforcing Feedback

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The mechanism that enables a change in the stock to affect a flow for the same stock. It is a closed chain of connections that flows out of the stock and back into it (previous stock changes affect future stock levels). 

Feedback loops

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. chelsea green publishing.

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