{
  "id": "normalisation-of-deviance.drift",
  "term": "normalisation of deviance",
  "sense": "drift",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 12,
  "arena": "organizational behavior",
  "domain": "safety culture",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A slow change in what is considered acceptable, where each small shift stays within the range of what can persist, so no alarm sounds even as the whole range moves closer to a boundary.",
  "folk_gloss": "When people gradually accept risky behaviors as normal without realizing it.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "boundary.limit",
      "parameter.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "self-model.reflexive",
    "novel_properties": [
      "emergent.window"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "NASA engineers gradually accepted O-ring erosion as normal after 23 prior shuttle launches showed no catastrophe.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The 2008 financial crisis emerged as banks routinely approved subprime mortgages, treating high risk as routine.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "Chernobyl operators disabled safety systems repeatedly during tests, treating protocol violations as standard procedure.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "normalisation of deviance",
    "normalization of deviance"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — drift nobody noticed"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-normalisation-of-deviance.drift"
}