Description

Tendency for people to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made.

Arkes, H. R., & Blumer, C. (1985). The psychology of sunk cost. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35(1), 124–140.

Task

Participants are presented with hypothetical scenarios (e.g., "After a large meal at a restaurant, you order a big dessert with chocolate and ice cream. After a few bites you find you are full and you would rather not eat any more of it") and choose between the sunk-cost option (e.g., "Most likely to eat more") and the normatively correct option (e.g., "Most likely to stop eating") using a 6-point scale ranging from 1 (the normatively correct option) to 6 (the sunk-cost option).

Items (10)

Instructions: Each of the following problems presents a choice between two options. Each problem is presented with a scale ranging from 1 (representing one option) through 6 (representing the other option). For each item, please circle the number on the scale that best reflects your relative preference between the two options.

Item 1

You are buying a gold ring on layaway for someone special. It costs $200 and you have already paid $100 on it, so you owe another $100. One day, you see in the paper that a new jewelry store is selling the same ring for only $90 as a special sale, and you can pay for it using layaway. The new store is across the street from the old one. If you decide to get the ring from the new store, you will not be able to get your money back from the old store, but you would save $10 overall.

Would you be more likely to continue paying at the old store or buy from the new store?

Item 2

You enjoy playing tennis, but you really love bowling. You just became a member of a tennis club, and of a bowling club, both at the same time. The membership to your tennis club costs $200 per year and the membership to your bowling club $50 per year. During the first week of both memberships, you develop an elbow injury. It is painful to play either tennis or bowling. Your doctor tells you that the pain will continue for about a year.

Would you be more likely to play tennis or bowling in the next six months?

Item 3

You have been looking forward to this year's Halloween party. You have the right cape, the right wig, and the right hat. All week, you have been trying to perfect the outfit by cutting out a large number of tiny stars to glue to the cape and the hat, and you still need to glue them on. On the day of Halloween, you decide that the outfit looks better without all these stars you have worked so hard on.

Would you be more likely to wear the stars or go without?

Item 4

After a large meal at a restaurant, you order a big dessert with chocolate and ice cream. After a few bites you find you are full and you would rather not eat any more of it.

Would you be more likely to eat more or to stop eating it?

Item 5

You are in a hotel room for one night and you have paid $6.95 to watch a movie on pay TV. Then you discover that there is a movie you would much rather like to see on one of the free cable TV channels. You only have time to watch one of the two movies.

Would you be more likely to watch the movie on pay TV or on the free cable channel?

Item 6

You have been asked to give a toast at your friend's wedding. You have worked for hours on this one story about you and your friend taking drivers' education, but you still have some work to do on it. Then you realize that you could finish writing the speech faster if you start over and tell the funnier story about the dance lessons you took together.

Would you be more likely to finish the toast about driving or rewrite it to be about dancing?

Item 7

You decide to learn to play a musical instrument. After you buy an expensive cello, you find you are no longer interested. Your neighbor is moving and you are excited that she is leaving you her old guitar, for free. You'd like to learn how to play it.

Would you be more likely to practice the cello or the guitar?

Item 8

You and your friend are at a movie theater together. Both you and your friend are getting bored with the storyline. You'd hate to waste the money spent on the ticket, but you both feel that you would have a better time at the coffee shop next door. You could sneak out without other people noticing.

Would you be more likely to stay or to leave?

Item 9

You and your friend have driven halfway to a resort. Both you and your friend feel sick. You both feel that you both would have a much better weekend at home. Your friend says it is "too bad" you already drove halfway, because you both would much rather spend the time at home. You agree. Would you be more likely to drive on or turn back?

Item 10

You are painting your bedroom with a sponge pattern in your favorite color. It takes a long time to do. After you finish two of the four walls, you realize you would have preferred the solid color instead of the sponge pattern. You have enough paint left over to redo the entire room in the solid color. It would take you the same amount of time as finishing the sponge pattern on the two walls you have left.

Would you be more likely to finish the sponge pattern or to redo the room in the solid color?

Scoring

The sunk cost fallacy score is the mean rating score.

Source

Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A. M., & Fischhoff, B. (2007). Individual differences in adult decision-making competence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(5), 938-956.