Existing theory in the literature states that, in conjugated polymers with degenerate ground states, the energy of a polaron is larger than that of a soliton but smaller than that of a soliton-antisoliton pair. However, in real polymers, doping not only provides charge transfer but also affects hopping near a dopant. Our study shows that when the hopping effect is included, the energy of a s-(S) over bar pair can be lower than that of single polaron. This effect is able to account for the experimental results observed for polymers with low concentration doping. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.