The phenomenon of hysteresis happens in many areas, upon a simple wikipedia search, hysteresis occurs in engineering, physics, biology, and even economics and law. 
above is a generic picture of hysteresis. It is interesting that for any given value on the x-axis, there are two corresponding values on the y-axis, which representing two directions of the process.
It is interesting see that it applies to so many areas of study both within science and outside of science. To start with just one example, electromagnet’s magnetic field response vs applied current.
From a paper by Ewing and Klaassen titled: On the magnetic qualities of iron, here are their explanation for hysteresis, here are some texts straight from the paper:
The Logical Offering 