When someone engages in behaviors that actively undermine their own goals, success, or well-being, that's known as self-sabotage. Sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious, self-sabotage can manifest in various areas of life, including work, relationships, and personal achievements.

A new study by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, examined self-sabotage, wanting to understand why some people continue to make choices that hurt themselves or others, even when they've been punished for it. Instead of assuming everyone responds to punishment the same way, the researchers tested whether people actually learn differently from punishment.

"We found that some people just don't learn from experience," said the study's corresponding author, Dr Philip Jean-Richard Dit Bressel, a behavioral neuroscientist and experimental psychologist at UNSW's School of Psychology. "Even when they're motivated to avoid harm and are paying attention, they fail to realize their own behavior is causing the problem."

The researchers recruited 267 individuals from 24 countries, representing a diverse range of ages and backgrounds. Participants were asked to play a computer game with the goal of earning as many points as possible. Clicking on one of two planets would reward points. One was a "risky" planet that sometimes triggered an attack, resulting in a loss of points; the other was a "safe" planet that never led to a loss of points. After three punishment rounds, participants were explicitly told which planet triggered attacks, and their understanding was confirmed via a test.

"We basically told them, 'this action leads to that negative consequence, and this other one is safe'," Jean-Richard Dit Bressel said. "Most people who had been making poor choices changed their behavior immediately. But some didn't."

Data collection took place in two stages, comprising the initial test and a retest six months later. At each stage, participants played the computer game and completed self-report questionnaires that measured their gaming strategy, cognitive flexibility, habitual tendencies, and alcohol use. Of the participants who had been recruited, 128 returned for follow-up testing six months later. The researchers found that participants fell into three distinct behavioral types:

Sensitive. These people quickly recognized which planet caused harm and changed their behavior early, even before they were told.

Unaware. They failed to infer the punishment cause at first, but once it was explicitly explained to them, they changed their behavior.

Compulsive. This group didn't change their behavior even when the punishment had been explained to them. They continued choosing the harmful option.