In 2021, a pair of University of Virginia psychology researchers presented ninety-one participants with a pattern and asked them to make it symmetrical by either adding or removing colored blocks. They were intrigued to find that only 20 percent of participants opted to solve the problem by taking blocks away—a subtractive approach. This bias toward additive solutions is widespread, and it’s connected to the loss aversion that trapped me in my relationship with Mr. Backpack.
