Why do people say they learned a lesson and commit the same mistake again?  

People often react emotionally rather than rationally, particularly in love situations.

Learning a lesson is a rational process, but emotional urges are often far more powerful than rational thinking.

Back in the 1980s I had a relationship with a lady who had divorced a man who had cheated constantly on her, and finally left her for another woman. She seemed to be more interested eventually in finding a clone of her ex-husband with all the personality failings, rather than trying to settle for someone who could offer her more stability and affection. Such men were simply (would you believe) too "boring"!

its not jsut about "learning the lesson" its also about shifting how we think and react adn putting what we've learned into action....Old habits die hard ya know...we may have learned our lesson but it takes time and work to put it into action..

Some years ago I had a friend who was dating a married man. He didn't want his wife to find out about their relationship and my friend wasn't allowed to call him. He called her when he wanted to see her and the rest of the time she just waited and cried because she missed him. Sometimes he didn't call her for weeks, and when he finally called her he expected her to be ready to meet him and to cancel her other plans. My friend and I often talked about this man, and she said over and over that she wasn't going put up with his behaviour anymore, but next time he called she forgot about it, and she kept on seeing him for years. I often tried to help her and give her advice and so did her sisters and her other friends, but she kept on going back to him.

I also know the situation from my own life. In some situations I am able to learn from my experience, but in other situations I keep on making the same mistakes. When I read my old diaries I can see how I keep repeating some of the same mistakes. If I really want sometimes I tend to keep on trying even though I know from experience that it isn't going to work out

i did that sometimes as well... i think it is just human nature and we won't really learn our lesson unless if we had been hit really hard by the reality... we try our best to avoid making the same mistakes... but our nature keep on betraying us and hence we keep on making the same mistake... i always try my best to learn my lesson and don't repeat it again... i don't want to be hit really hard until rock bottom before i learn my lesson... it is not worth it and i will feel like an idiot if that has to happen to me before i learn my lesson... take care and have a nice day...

I think at times, they did learn the lesson. Its just over time, the lessons learn tend to fade. Time passes and many of our memories fade with time. Thus, a similar mistake can be made again. The learning experiences are forgotten and it is a very vicious circle to be trapped up in to be sure. Yet, an extremely common one, as people learn something for a short time and then life goes on.

In this regard i ve only some words to define that because people do not understand what they are actually doing. whatever it is good or bad they thing may be this will never happened again but the commit a big mistake again. As we say in English Human is the Statue of Mistakes. and the other way "the more mistake you made the more you learn from them" .

I think we've all done that at one time or another. As for your friend, Im not sure why she want back with him. Maybe she thinks she cant find anyone else.

I know that I'll sometimes do something and then hit my forehead thinking Ive done the same thing before and knew I shouldnt have but here I am again in the same situation. But at least, when I remember what happened before, I can then stop it right there and then and not go through it and do the same mistake. Some people learn, some dont. Thats life I guess.

I don't know. I'm trying to analyze this myself because I've been guilty of doing that especially with money. I think it's because old habits are hard to break. Look at smoking. Everyone knows it can kill you but people still do it. If habits were easy to break, we wouldn't call them habits.

When you make a mistake, the only one way that you won't repeat it, is if you understand what made you take a wrong decision that leads to bad consequences. But in love situations for some people is difficult act in an objective ways, because they only think with their emotions. Until your friend doesn't understand that she is not using the best judgment, or that she is repeating patterns that are attracting not so good guys, she will be going through the same over and over again.

Thats why we always say that love is blind. Love can blind us to see the right thing. And our mind is not a computer that we can set to always follow the instruction. Our brain is so flexible and changeable. And many things that can make us to change our mind. Maybe the guy of your friend has asked her for apology to not hurt her anymore. And for girl, for this case, girl never can use logic that say the guy is a bad guy, girl will always follow her heart who always want to be with the guy, even if she knows that he is not a good guy.