A name for this phenomenon.

January 20, 2016 4:34 PM

Is there a name for lottery winners who seem to be cursed by their winnings? Or is there a word for that more general phenomenon of something that is bad for you counter-intuitively appearing to be a really good thing?
posted by Taft to Writing & Language (21 answers total)

Best answer: The Monkey's Paw?
posted by Malla at 4:46 PM on January 20, 2016 [7 favorites]

So you want a word that describes both the superabundance and the recipients' response to that inundation? A word like hyperoxia (too much oxygen) but more generalised? I can't think of a single word but a few phrases come to mind - too much of a good thing & death by chocolate. I think this calls for a non-english word.
posted by Thella at 4:47 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Somewhat more specific than you're looking for, but there is the Resource Curse (AKA the Paradox of Plenty)
posted by anonymisc at 4:47 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

How about a white elephant, as in something presented (at least ostensibly) as a generous gift, which is actually a liability.
posted by MoTLD at 4:49 PM on January 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

Best answer: "Gift Horse" might be another such phrase.
posted by mosk at 4:52 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Monkey's Paw, Too Much of a Good Thing, Resource Curse, Gift Horse -- really good subtle contours of this general scenario. Now what about names for the cursed party?
posted by Taft at 4:54 PM on January 20, 2016

Response by poster: Also, the longing itself. It's not like the bad-boy appeal where you know what you're getting into trouble; it's more like a misconception or miscalculation that arises from trusting conventional wisdom about incentives and rewards.
posted by Taft at 5:02 PM on January 20, 2016

Best answer: misconception or miscalculation that arises from trusting conventional wisdom about incentives and rewards

Ah, that could be 'greed'
posted by Thella at 5:12 PM on January 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: "Careful what you wish for, you just might get it" also seems applicable.
posted by MoTLD at 5:12 PM on January 20, 2016 [9 favorites]

Best answer: Poisoned chalice?
posted by carter at 5:23 PM on January 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

Best answer: It's very nearly the Midas Touch, isn't it? Guy wishes for unlimited money, gets his wish, turns out the only way he can interact with the world anymore is via money, causing him to lose everything he truly loves and enjoys?
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 5:41 PM on January 20, 2016 [8 favorites]

At the international level this is known as the "resource curse".

The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries and regions with an abundance of natural resources, specifically point-source non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. This is hypothesized to happen for many different reasons, including a decline in the competitiveness of other economic sectors (caused by appreciation of the real exchange rate as resource revenues enter an economy, a phenomenon known as Dutch disease), volatility of revenues from the natural resource sector due to exposure to global commodity market swings, government mismanagement of resources, or weak, ineffectual, unstable or corrupt institutions (possibly due to the easily diverted actual or anticipated revenue stream from extractive activities). The resource curse may not be universal for all countries with an abundance of natural resources, but on average, economies with abundant natural resources have tended to grow more slowly than natural-resource-scarce economies.

posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:11 PM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, rats.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:12 PM on January 20, 2016

Cursed by good fortune.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 6:14 PM on January 20, 2016

people who confuse a finite sum with infinity?
posted by jason's_planet at 6:36 PM on January 20, 2016

Best answer: There's always "affluenza" if you can stomach the association with a winner of a lottery of a slightly different kind.
posted by jamjam at 7:01 PM on January 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Emil Durkheim's famous sociological discussion of why you might experience depression over lottery winnings is an example of what he calls anomie. The concept of anomie describes how such a sudden good fortune alienates you from your community, displaces your identity as a working person when you quit your job, and shakes up your sense of your place in the world, even on an existential level. Anomie seems like a good term here.
posted by flourpot at 7:23 PM on January 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: I think Resource Curse, Midas Touch, Anomie and Poisoned Chalice probably explain the lottery example best, but I absolutely love how it could also easily be compared to the Gift Horse or Monkey's Paw too. Affluenza also fits in there really well. Thanks y'all!
posted by Taft at 7:23 PM on January 20, 2016

The miserable lottery winner scenario describes a Faustian bargain quite well.
posted by deathpanels at 8:41 PM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

In macroeconomic terms there's Dutch Disease - it's basically another term for a resource curse.
posted by GuyZero at 9:55 PM on January 20, 2016

Response by poster: OH OH my friend has a good one to add that is strikingly obvious: decreasing marginal utility. Your first donut tastes better than your twenty-ninth donut.
posted by Taft at 11:41 PM on January 21, 2016