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Appropriate Friction

Glossary entry in Friction & flow. Definitions, checks, and evidence for Appropriate Friction.

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Quick takeaways

Deliberate slowdowns or checkpoints inserted where harm would be costly or irreversible.

Definition

Deliberate slowdowns or checkpoints inserted where harm would be costly or irreversible. Appropriate friction treats velocity friction and ethical interrupts as safety features.

Scope
I. Friction & flow. Designing intentional friction that protects people while keeping harm contained.
Genealogy
Ethotechnics uses Appropriate Friction to extend the i. friction & flow vocabulary and connect governance, design, and policy teams.

Adjacent terms

safety friction compliance

Example corpus

  • High-risk data exports require a second reviewer before completion.

References

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Cite this glossary entry Formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS

Version

v1.1.0

Last updated

Jan 9, 2026

DOI

Pending Zenodo deposit

APA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. (2026). Appropriate Friction. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/appropriate-friction

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Appropriate Friction." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/appropriate-friction.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Appropriate Friction." Ethotechnics glossary. Jan 9, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/appropriate-friction.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_appropriate-friction,
  title={Appropriate Friction},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute Research Team},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/appropriate-friction},
  version={v1.1.0}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Appropriate Friction
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute Research Team
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/appropriate-friction
ER  -

Scholarly metadata

Authorship

Contact: research@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Jan 9, 2026
  • Version: v1.1.0
  • DOI: Pending Zenodo deposit

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute, include the term title + version, and link to the glossary permalink.

Archive snapshot: Wayback capture

Changelog

  • v1.1.0 · 2026-01-09 — Expanded scholarly metadata, operational tests, and provenance notes.
  • v1.0.0 · 2025-12-03 — Initial glossary release with stable permalinks.