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The Cost of Efficiency: Exploring Doubling-Back Aversion

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Manage episode 496246282 series 2829366
Content provided by psychologicalscience. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by psychologicalscience or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Why do we avoid retracing our steps—even when it helps us reach our goals faster? In this episode of Under the Cortex, host Özge Gürcanlı Fischer-Baum speaks with Kristine Cho and Clayton Critcher from the University of California, Berkeley about their latest research on doubling-back aversion: the tendency to resist more efficient paths if they require undoing prior effort.

Across four studies involving performance tasks and virtual navigation, Kristine finds that people often choose less efficient strategies simply to avoid feeling like their past actions were a waste. This aversion, while related to the sunk-cost fallacy, has its own unique psychological fingerprint.

Tune in to learn how our perceptions of effort, progress, and meaning can lead us astray—even when we know better.

If you're interested in learning more about this research, visit psychologicalscience.org.

Send us your thoughts and questions at [email protected].

  continue reading

128 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 496246282 series 2829366
Content provided by psychologicalscience. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by psychologicalscience or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Why do we avoid retracing our steps—even when it helps us reach our goals faster? In this episode of Under the Cortex, host Özge Gürcanlı Fischer-Baum speaks with Kristine Cho and Clayton Critcher from the University of California, Berkeley about their latest research on doubling-back aversion: the tendency to resist more efficient paths if they require undoing prior effort.

Across four studies involving performance tasks and virtual navigation, Kristine finds that people often choose less efficient strategies simply to avoid feeling like their past actions were a waste. This aversion, while related to the sunk-cost fallacy, has its own unique psychological fingerprint.

Tune in to learn how our perceptions of effort, progress, and meaning can lead us astray—even when we know better.

If you're interested in learning more about this research, visit psychologicalscience.org.

Send us your thoughts and questions at [email protected].

  continue reading

128 episodes

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