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In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Sunk costs are contrasted with prospective costs , which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken. [ 3 ]
Economists and behavioral scientists use a related term, sunk-cost fallacy, to describe the justification of increased investment of money or effort in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment ("sunk cost") despite new evidence suggesting that the future cost of continuing the behavior outweighs the expected benefit.
Escalation of commitment, irrational escalation, or sunk cost fallacy, where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong. G. I. Joe fallacy, the tendency to think that knowing about cognitive bias is enough to overcome it. [65]
Examples: One of you keeps planning unique date nights or suggesting couples therapy or spicing up your (nonexistent) sex life or—you get it. You keep trying because you’ve already tried so hard.
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A costly signal in which the cost of an action is incurred upfront ("ex ante") is a sunk cost. An example of this would be the mobilization of an army as this sends a clear signal of intentions and the costs are incurred immediately. When the cost of the action is incurred after the decision is made ("ex post") it is considered to be tying hands.
No sunk costs; The same level of technology is available to incumbent businesses and new entrants. A perfectly contestable market is not possible in real life. Instead, the degree of contestability can be observed within markets. [example needed] The more contestable a market is, the closer it will be to a perfectly contestable market.
The sunk-cost problem helps explain why it was so hard to end that war. It is worth considering this problem as we reflect on current wars. The sunk-cost fallacy applies in our thinking about the ...