Why do people keep self-sabotaging?

For some, the “learn from your mistakes” mantra never truly sinks in. Self-sabotage can be a vicious cycle, and a recent study led by the University of New South Wales Sidney’s Dr. Philip Jean-Richard dit Bressel might offer an explanation. Through an experimental video game, researchers from UNSW tested why certain people continued to make decisions that ultimately harmed them.

The game gave participants two planets to click on — one would result in earning points and the other would result in losing them. Results showed that those who kept choosing the planet with a losing streak simply failed to make the connection between their choice of action and its harmful consequences.

Do we just need to be more direct? Not exactly. In a later stage of the experiment, researchers told the participants which planet prompted the point losses. Aside from the individuals who had worked out on their own which choices led to which outcome — labeled as the ‘sensitives’ — more than half of the participants ended up exhibiting the behaviour of the “unawares” — those who were able to change their choices after gaining more information — and the “compulsives” — those who continued making choices that led to negative results despite having access to new information.

Though the compulsives showed awareness, they somehow still believed that their choices were optimal. “Even when they’re motivated to avoid harm and are paying attention, they fail to realise their own behaviour is causing the problem,” the study’s lead said.

Self-sabotage seems to go beyond understanding the causal link between action and consequence. Researchers believe that the dissonance compulsives exhibited between cognitive and behavioral functions is potentially an inherent trait. This suggests that information for compulsives will not be sufficient as a prevention tactic for addressing behaviors such as addiction. “The patterns we’re seeing, where people ignore both experience and information, are similar to what we see in gambling and other compulsive behaviours,” dit Bressel added.