There are cases in which the intention and volitional actions lead to the opposite undesired result. A huge psychological gap between expectations and outcomes can be even widened by the extra efforts paid in these cases. Differing from other normal failures such as getting unsatisfactory scores, being rejected in an interview, getting a chair collapsed when sitting on it, or missing the favorite sunglasses, individuals may experience a sense of betrayal by their own will, accompanied by remorse and self-reproach, considering that the result would have been better had they not harbored such intentions or taken those actions.

Such cases are coined “Counterproductive Situations” in my research where one has an intention towards a certain result, and takes actions to achieve it, but obtains the counterproductive undesirable result brought by the intention itself. In the Cambridge Dictionary, “counterproductive” refers to “having an effect that is opposite to one intended or wanted” while the closest synonym is “backfire”.