Yes I know, your least-favorite idea goes here. But seriously, someone must have come up with the concept before. Like a bad get-rich-quick scheme could fall into this category, where joining the scheme makes people lose money and become more desperate, so they become more likely to do desperate things like invest more in the scheme. But it can apply to a number of other bad ideas.
That’s the “sunk cost fallacy”
Sunk cost fallacy is definitely a subtype, but I’m going for I guess the more general concept of an idea that becomes more popular the worse it does
I don’t think it is a subcategory I think it’s the term you’re looking for.
The actual phrase has its origins in a financial sense but the way it’s used nowadays is much more broad. You can invest time, money, emotion, identity etc and it’s still the “sunk cost fallacy” if it keeps failing and you keep going.
“Its Morbin Time” comes to mind
“Streisand effect” comes to mind, but like “sunk cost fallacy” it’s just an example of something “becoming more popular the more it fails.”
Conservativism.
That’s more of a mental disability
Feels like there ought to be a term… it’s kind of a mix between “vicious circle”, “feedback loop”, and “echo chamber”.
There’s a certain amount of Gambler’s Fallacy in this, too: I’ll keep going, because it’s going to turn around.
Sunk cost fallacy?
I don’t know if the ‘wanting is better than having’ trope is the best fit but it’s a decent fit and kind of caters to the social aspect of what you’re describing. You know, some shiny trendy new thing and everyone’s chasing after it and as people get it they’re sorely disappointed, but it doesn’t dissuade others one bit (sometimes the reaction from the initial acquirers causes even more appeal to those who don’t have it) , until everyone is all disappointed. And then the moral of the story plays out in the resolution
I would usually refer to such a thing as a “Producers” (like the play) but that is specifically for bad ideas that suck for a majority of people but benefit a few; like the plot of the play where they make a flop to get more money than they would with a hit.
Ponzi scheme? Multi-Level Marketing? Pyramid scheme?
Quicksand.
