Why Do We Go All In on Lost Causes?

We've all experienced the sunk cost fallacy: when you are deep into a task and tell yourself that you’ve come this far, so you may as well finish it. We do this even if it's no longer logical to finish. So why do we do it?

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[timeisnow]

One of my favorite quotes "Don't commit to a mistake just because you spent a long time making it"

[BrainsApplied]

*"Ah well, I've already waited for the bus for half an hour. I'll wait 5 more minutes, it might show up."*

[christafranken]

I think it might be due to people feeling the cost isn't sunk untill they let go. So, as long as you are still investing, it doesn't feel like the original investment is lost. You are still with it, so it still feels like yours. That would make it harder to let go and stop investing I think.
(Revised for spelling)

[heckyes]

I wanted to skip the video but I had already invested 30 seconds into it.

[AlabasterJazz]

I think a lot of media tends to promote never giving up or having the underdog win even against implausible odds, so this is likely a cultural phenomenon as much as it it an individual cognitive one; people tend to idolize the outlier: winning the lottery, writing a best-seller, going viral, becoming a millionaire even though they grew up in poverty, etc. Sometimes the end result of something is not obviously worth the total sum of tangible costs put into it, but I think most studies would fail to calculate the total sum of intangible benefits gained throughout the process: "the ends justify the means, " or "it's not the destination but the journey that counts, " or "the real reward was the friendships we made along the way" sort of thing. At the end of the day many people would chock the loss up to a temporary "failure" and use the experience to do better going forward, the cost isn't "sunk" so much as it is the price of admission for becoming a better decision maker overall.

[Brainstorm]

I literally told my sister about this yesterday because she already paid for bus but now had the option to get a ride with someone. I'll link her this video.

[elinebrouwer]

very popular reason is also the feeling that we've not given "it" our all. I see this with relationships in some of my friends where things are just being dragged out

[manty_monster]

I think its the trauma of capitalism, all of us growing up with food and resource scarcity have it nailed into us that we can't afford to give up anything so we refuse to cut loose a bad investment believing that we'll never get anything better and if we give something up and fail to find something better that often means loss of income, companionship, food, housing, any number of things that we can't afford to lose

[whafrog]

I was tempted to quit my effort to get a BA, and I've never used it in any official capacity, but its presence on my resume has got me interviews and jobs I never would have had, never mind the pride of completion. Determining whether something is a "sunk cost" is a little more complex than laid out in the video, it very much depends on a) the context; and b) the unknowable future. In the end I'm glad I persevered, but I couldn't have known that at the time.

[donedennison]

I have a painful memory of giving up the guitar because I wasn't playing it as much as I wished and first my partner at the time then a person I knew were critical of me. On the other hand, I continued in a business that was failing for a year after it was clear it wasn't working. Both of them were heart wrenching. This is a really complex topic. I recently bought myself a new guitar. :)

[evilsharkey]

Sometimes you need to acknowledge when you’ve already lost so you don’t keep losing more and more.

[jimbojackson]

I wonder if anyone got bored halfway thru this vid, but decided to keep watching, since they've already invested time watching the first half

[voltairesarmy]

@0:46 Behavioral economists would NOT argue that people are rational decision makers. A large amount of the literature is devoted to ways people deviate from rational decision making.

[aendir]

**cough** MLM companies and Amway **cough**

[baKanale]

"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here'." - from 'Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan

[christelheadington]

*Everybody loves the under dog.* If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.* Never give up the ship! * When the going gets tough, the tough get going.* What the are we to do with all these inspirational quotes, if no one uses them?

[Henchman_Holding_Wrench]

Sunk Cost is how I finished my undergraduate degree. Even when I was fully aware of it.

[Meravokas]

Something interesting is also when people see something as a sunk cost situation from the outside when it really isn't from the inside. I bought a vintage british rifle from WW2, 1943 made. Great condition in all aspects except for the chamber, which I didn't realize was in an unserviceable and unsafe state. And when I found that out I needed to buy a new barrel. Yes I told someone after I bought a new barrel, that I was going to continue to go through with saving the money to have it all fit and finished because I'd already spent 750$ total by this point. But, I also don't want a wall hanger rifle that will just be sitting around and slowly degrading. I want to preserve a piece of history, and have be a working piece and restore it. I bought it to shoot it, and intend to shoot it again. Many say restorations are sunk costs and money sinks. But they're also projects, and usually ones that are done out of passion. I was told by my brother to not fall into a sunken cost fallacy, but he doesn't understand my desire to have it back in working order.

[Roll]

Oh wow, I'm in the middle of getting my PhD and I really feel this.

[sogerc]

That's why it was so hard to stop watching "The Walking Dead", but man, that show was going nowhere.