Afraid of the wrong decision? Ask if it's a two-way door

On the show Psicologia na Prática (September 2025), Brazilian psychologist Alana Anijar gave an episode to the fear of making the wrong decision and regretting it. The first piece of advice, Anijar said in that episode, is to change how you look at choices. Not every decision carries the same weight. When you're anxious, though, they all feel equally heavy. To sort them, Anijar borrows a frame credited to a well-known business founder: two types of decision.

Two doors

Type 2 decisions, in Anijar's telling, are reversible. They're a two-way door: if it goes wrong, you can walk back through. The examples are everyday ones: trying a new hobby, a new haircut, rearranging a room, signing up for an online course. These choices shouldn't take much energy, in this view, because they don't need full certainty. The faster you decide, the faster you learn, and life moves on. If you cut a fringe and don't like it, it grows back.

Type 1 decisions are the ones that are irreversible, or very hard to reverse. They're a one-way door. The examples: having a child, moving to another country for good, putting all your savings into a new business, getting married or separating. These deserve time: calm thinking, a conversation with people you trust, weighing what you could gain and lose. The trouble, Anijar said, is that we mix the two up.

"a gente trata decisões do tipo 2... como se fossem tipo 1"

In English: "we treat type 2 decisions as if they were type 1"

Alana Anijar, Psicologia na Prática, 2025

The result, Anijar said, is that we freeze in front of things that could be simple.

What research adds

Research on decisions adds a twist to this advice. In a 2002 Harvard study, students chose a photo to keep. Those whose choice was final came to like their photo more than those who could still swap it. Yet when another group of 89 students was asked, about two thirds said they'd rather keep the option to change (Gilbert and Ebert, 2002). So people like the feel of a two-way door, but once you've chosen, treating the choice as closed may sit better than keeping it open.

Holding out for the perfect option has costs too. In studies of more than 1,700 people, those who always sought the best option tended to report more regret (Schwartz et al, 2002). It's a link, not proof that searching causes regret.

How this fits the Reduce worry and overthinking program

In the 1h Protocol to Reduce Worry and Overthinking, choices that stay open are one of the patterns, the Open Decision. Its part of the program asks you to write the one or two things the choice has to get right, take the first option that meets both, and pick a date to decide by. On that day you choose and close it, and only a new fact reopens it. If you need longer, you move the date once and write down why. Anijar's episode is on the program's listening list. The first chapter is free, and if this is your pattern, it ends with your first step: two things and a date.

Source: Alana Anijar, Psicologia na Prática, Você tem medo de tomar a decisão errada e se arrepender?, 30 Sep 2025 Research: Gilbert and Ebert, 2002 · Schwartz et al, 2002