diff --git a/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js b/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
index 1c7f1a1562b..629dc12c780 100644
--- a/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
+++ b/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
@@ -796,13 +796,18 @@ openerp.web.ListView.List = openerp.web.Class.extend( /** @lends openerp.web.Lis
         var value;
         if(column.type === 'reference') {
             value = record.get(column.id);
-            if (value) {
+            var ref_match;
+            // Ensure that value is in a reference "shape", otherwise we're
+            // going to loop on performing name_get after we've resolved (and
+            // set) a human-readable version. m2o does not have this issue
+            // because the non-human-readable is just a number, where the
+            // human-readable version is a pair
+            if (value && (ref_match = /([\w\.]+),(\d+)/.exec(value))) {
                 // reference values are in the shape "$model,$id" (as a
                 // string), we need to split and name_get this pair in order
                 // to get a correctly displayable value in the field
-                var ref = value.split(','),
-                    model = ref[0],
-                    id = parseInt(ref[1], 10);
+                var model = ref_match[1],
+                    id = parseInt(ref_match[2], 10);
                 new openerp.web.DataSet(this.view, model).name_get([id], function(names) {
                     if (!names.length) { return; }
                     record.set(column.id, names[0][1]);