Escalation of commitment

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Escalation of commitment is the phenomenon where people increase their investment in a decision despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong. Such investment may include money (known informally as "throwing good money after bad"), time, or — in the case of military strategy — human lives. The term is also used to describe poor decision-making in business, government, information systems in general, software project management in particular, politics, and gambling.

Escalation of commitment was recognized by Barry M. Staw in his 1976 paper, "Knee deep in the big muddy: A study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action".

See also

• Loss aversion
• Status quo bias
• Sunk Cost Fallacy

 

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