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Decision MakingMember ingredient
Escalation of Commitment
Continuing a failing course of action because of prior responsibility, investment or a threat to self-image.
Public evidence overview
One checked source, with its limits.
This preview is not the complete evidence base. Use it as a question to investigate in your own product, not as a prediction of what an individual will do.
Checked source previewAcademic paper
To the depths of the sunk cost: Experiments revisiting the elusive effect
Research-assisted source review
- What it supports
- The $2 online cost difference increased task time by 0.12 standard deviations, about 1.3 minutes. In the YouTube field experiment, longer forced ad viewing did not increase overall video engagement and caused 5.2 percentage points more users—28% relatively—to leave before the video started compared with immediate skipping.
- Where it may not transfer
- The experiments manipulate monetary cost or forced waiting in narrow tasks; an advertisement delay is also friction and may not create the same reference point as a paid ticket. One controlled effect and one field null do not establish a general tendency or justify adding cost or friction to digital products.
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