Doubling-Back Aversion: Why We Avoid the Smarter Path (Even When We Know It’s Better)
Tuesday, July 22, 2025.
Ever walked ten minutes in the wrong direction and refused to turn around—just because “you already started this way”? Welcome to the human condition.
Or, more precisely, to a newly documented psychological bias called doubling-back aversion.
According to new research published in Psychological Science (Cho & Critcher, 2025), people tend to reject more efficient options if those options involve undoing progress—even when it’s obvious that retracing their steps would save time and energy.
It’s not about being bad at math. It’s about the uncomfortable feeling of wasted effort.
What Is Doubling-Back Aversion?
Doubling-back aversion is the reluctance to switch to a better path if that path requires you to go back, restart, or undo earlier steps. It’s a form of decision paralysis driven by emotional framing—not logical cost-benefit analysis.
This behavior shows up in real life more than we think:
A job seeker sticks with an outdated resume because they’ve “already spent hours on it.”
A couple stays in a misaligned relationship because “we’ve come this far.”
A project leader avoids changing course midstream, even though the new path is obviously better.
The new research shows this isn’t just anecdotal. It’s measurable—and surprisingly powerful.
Inside the Study: How Researchers Discovered the Pattern
Two researchers at UC Berkeley—Kristine Y. Cho, a PhD student, and Professor Clayton R. Critcher—ran four large-scale experiments involving over 2,500 adults. They tested how people reacted when presented with the option to double back, whether in physical tasks or mental challenges.
Key Findings:
In a virtual navigation task, only 31% chose a shorter route if it required retracing steps—compared to 57% who chose the same shortcut when it didn’t involve backtracking.
In a word-generation task, 75% of participants switched to an easier task when it was framed as a simple change. But when the switch was described as “starting over,” only 25% made the change.
The difference wasn’t knowledge. It was framing.
Why Do People Avoid Backtracking?
The researchers found two key psychological triggers:
Undoing Past Work – People dislike the idea of discarding previous effort, even if that effort was inefficient.
Starting Over – Restarting feels like failure. It reactivates self-doubt, frustration, and loss aversion.
These triggers create emotional friction. Even when participants knew switching would save time, they stayed the course if the better option felt like erasing progress.
This behavior is closely related to, but distinct from, the sunk cost fallacy. In doubling-back aversion, the investment is minor or even fresh. Still, the idea of lost effort creates inertia.
Real-Life Examples: Where You’ll See It
This bias shows up in every domain where progress is nonlinear or where we’re emotionally attached to effort already spent:
Careers: Staying in the wrong field because of years already invested.
Relationships: Avoiding breakup or therapy-ending because “we’ve already been through so much.”
Projects and Hobbies: Refusing to start a draft from scratch even when it’s clearly not working.
Everyday Decisions: Choosing a longer path rather than walking past your own front door again.
And let’s be honest: the longer we’ve been on a path, the harder it is to admit it might be time to turn around.
How to Overcome Doubling-Back Aversion
The solution lies in reframing.
Instead of focusing on what’s lost, shift attention to what’s gained. Here are practical strategies:
Reframe the reset as a strategic pivot, not a failure.
Focus on future rewards, not past investments.
Use language like “continuing under new conditions” rather than “starting over.”
Normalize course corrections as signs of wisdom, not weakness.
Behavioral science consistently shows that the way we frame decisions shapes behavior more than the actual facts involved (Kahneman & Tversky, 1984). The more we align our internal narrative with forward-looking logic, the more likely we are to choose well.
What This Says About Human Nature
In reflecting on the findings, Cho explained:
“People need to recognize that the past is fixed, and it is only the future we can control. We need to be willing to accept that we may have made some mistakes along the way, but that it is never too late to change course.”
And that might be the most important takeaway: intelligent progress sometimes requires letting go of the sunk labor fantasy. The finish line doesn’t care how scenic your route was—it only matters that you get there.
A New Lens on Progress and Pivots
This research is already inspiring future studies on larger life decisions—career changes, relationship shifts, even business pivots.
Early results suggest that doubling-back aversion may grow stronger the longer we’ve been committed to a path, making it even harder to admit when it’s time to change course.
But it’s not hopeless. In fact, knowing this bias exists can help us intervene in our own thinking—and help therapists, coaches, and educators support clients in choosing smarter paths.
Bottom Line: It’s Okay to Turn Around
If you’re halfway through something and realize there’s a better way, don’t let pride or framing keep you stuck.
Turning around isn’t failure. It’s often a recalibration.
A shortcut to success that only looks like backtracking when you're standing too close to your own ego.
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Cho, K. Y., & Critcher, C. R. (2025). Doubling-back aversion: A reluctance to make progress by undoing it. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241262032