I've noticed something similar which seems to be related not to direction or length but to the shape of the path. I realized this weird one when walking to/from class. There was no direct/crowflies/euclidean route from my residence to the classroom building, but several routes of approximately the same length. I almost always took one there and another one home. Part of this is habit, but I think the other reason is some kind of funnel effect: I prefer open pathways, because I feel like they give me more flexibility, or something, and so in each direction I start with the path that feels the most open, even though later it will narrow. Or something?
I confess I don't understand this very well. I think part of it also has to do with how direct the path is at that point. Like I'm more willing to walk perpendicularly (to the absolute path) at the end of my walk than at the beginning. Both directions aside, I can imagine this manifesting in situations where a brief perpendicularity at the start would actually create a much shorter walk, although I'm not quite that irrational in this instance
If I understood you correctly, something similar happens with myself. Schematically, it goes as follows: if I have to go from A to F in the following diagram,
A B C
D E F
and I cannot go directly through the rectangle's diagonal but I can go on the squares' diagonals, I will go A-E-F, and return F-B-A. Is this what happens with you?
The mechanism is probably that the brain at A, knowing it has to get to F, scans all immediately available directions to walk and determines that AE is the one closest to approaching F. That the path ...
Picture a circular road on a map. Let's say that my office is at twelve o'clock, my home is at five o'clock, and the post office is at three o'clock.
Now, suppose I have to leave work, pick up a document at home, and take it to the post office to mail it. I know it's faster to walk clockwise home, passing the post office, and then return to it with the letter. But my gut preference is to go counterclockwise, either because of an aversion to retracing my steps, or because that route just ... feels "cleaner" or more efficient somehow, or ... I can't articulate it any better than that.
Does anyone else share this intuition? Is it a manifestation of one or more known/studied effects?