Searching for the sunk cost fallacy

Experimental Economics - Tập 10 - Trang 79-104 - 2007
Daniel Friedman1, Kai Pommerenke1, Rajan Lukose1, Garrett Milam1, Bernardo A. Huberman1
1Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Tóm tắt

We seek to isolate in the laboratory factors that encourage and discourage the sunk cost fallacy. Subjects play a computer game in which they decide whether to keep digging for treasure on an island or to sink a cost (which will turn out to be either high or low) to move to another island. The research hypothesis is that subjects will stay longer on islands that were more costly to find. Eleven treatment variables are considered, e.g. alternative visual displays, whether the treasure value of an island is shown on arrival or discovered by trial and error, and alternative parameters for sunk costs. The data reveal a surprisingly small sunk cost effect that is generally insensitive to the proposed psychological drivers.

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Experimental Economics

Tập 10

79-104

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