AbstractIn 1975 the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), the principal administrative agent for American bilateral development assistance, mandated a social analysis component to the project preparation and approval process.1Although 'social soundness analysis' is now a required dimension of project identification and design its presumed positive effects are not yet apparent on the output side. Post project impact evaluations reveal that there continue to be negative social effects from AID'S development efforts, regardless of project type.In the process by which projects are identified, framed, approved, and ultimately implemented, important signals identified by pre‐project social analysis get displaced. This occurs because anticipating social impact is only one of several goals or functions served by pre‐project design analysis. This essay interprets the role of social analysis in the dynamics of project preparation, identifying structures and procedures which attenuate its influe