  We demonstrate a universal mechanism of a class of instabilities in infrared
regions for massless Abelian $p$-form gauge theories with topological
interactions, which we call generalized chiral instabilities. Such
instabilities occur in the presence of initial electric fields for the $p$-form
gauge fields. We show that the dynamically generated magnetic fields tend to
decrease the initial electric fields and result in configurations with linking
numbers, which can be characterized by non-invertible global symmetries. The
so-called chiral plasma instability and instabilities of the axion
electrodynamics and $(4+1)$-dimensional Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory in electric
fields can be described by the generalized chiral instabilities in a unified
manner. We also illustrate this mechanism in the $(2+1)$-dimensional
Goldstone-Maxwell model in electric field.
