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Doubling-Back Aversion: A Reluctance to Make Progress by Undoing It.

Kristine Y Cho1, Clayton R Critcher1

  • 1Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

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Summary

People avoid more efficient paths if they require undoing progress, a bias called doubling-back aversion. This reluctance stems from viewing past efforts as wasted, not route efficiency.

Keywords:
decision-makinggoal pursuitjudgmentsubjective construalsunk-cost fallacywaste aversion

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Individuals often face choices where a more efficient path requires retracing steps or discarding prior work.
  • Understanding the psychological drivers behind such decisions is crucial for explaining seemingly suboptimal choices.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify and define the phenomenon of 'doubling-back aversion.'
  • To investigate the psychological mechanisms underlying this aversion.
  • To differentiate doubling-back aversion from related concepts like the sunk-cost fallacy.

Main Methods:

  • Four studies involving 2,524 U.S. adults were conducted.
  • Participants engaged in virtual-reality navigation and performance tasks.
  • Doubling back was analyzed by its components: progress deletion and task completion proportion.

Main Results:

  • A consistent 'doubling-back aversion' was observed across diverse tasks.
  • Both deletion of past progress and increase in remaining task proportion independently contributed to this aversion.
  • The aversion was explained by subjective construals of past/future effort, not route length perception.

Conclusions:

  • Doubling-back aversion is a distinct psychological bias where individuals avoid efficient paths that necessitate undoing progress.
  • The primary driver is the aversion to perceiving past efforts as wasted.
  • This finding offers a new perspective on decision-making under conditions of progress and potential reversal.