Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment
When people have invested resources into an endeavor, they typically persist in it, even when it becomes obvious that it will fail. Here we show this bias extends to people’s moral decision-making. Across two preregistered experiments (N = 1592) we show that people are more willing to proceed with a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2019-11-01
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| Series: | Judgment and Decision Making |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S193029750000543X/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1797697916058468352 |
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| author | Ethan A. Meyers Michał Białek Jonathan A. Fugelsang Derek J. Koehler Ori Friedman |
| author_facet | Ethan A. Meyers Michał Białek Jonathan A. Fugelsang Derek J. Koehler Ori Friedman |
| author_sort | Ethan A. Meyers |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When people have invested resources into an endeavor, they typically persist in it, even when it becomes obvious that it will fail. Here we show this bias extends to people’s moral decision-making. Across two preregistered experiments (N = 1592) we show that people are more willing to proceed with a futile, immoral action when costs have been sunk (Experiment 1A and 1B). Moreover, we show that sunk costs distort people’s perception of morality by increasing how acceptable they find actions that have received past investment (Experiment 2). We find these results in contexts where continuing would lead to no obvious benefit and only further harm. We also find initial evidence that the bias has a larger impact on judgment in immoral compared to non-moral contexts. Our findings illustrate a novel way that the past can affect moral judgment. Implications for rational moral judgment and models of moral cognition are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:46:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b47e90eea02d4261a0a97108786242ef |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1930-2975 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:46:48Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Judgment and Decision Making |
| spelling | doaj.art-b47e90eea02d4261a0a97108786242ef2023-09-03T12:43:28ZengCambridge University PressJudgment and Decision Making1930-29752019-11-011472172710.1017/S193029750000543XWronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgmentEthan A. Meyers0Michał Białek1Jonathan A. Fugelsang2Derek J. Koehler3Ori Friedman4Department of Psychology, University of WaterlooInstitute of Psychology, Univeristy of Wrocław, Dawida 1, 50-529 Wrocław, PolandDepartment of Psychology, University of WaterlooDepartment of Psychology, University of WaterlooDepartment of Psychology, University of WaterlooWhen people have invested resources into an endeavor, they typically persist in it, even when it becomes obvious that it will fail. Here we show this bias extends to people’s moral decision-making. Across two preregistered experiments (N = 1592) we show that people are more willing to proceed with a futile, immoral action when costs have been sunk (Experiment 1A and 1B). Moreover, we show that sunk costs distort people’s perception of morality by increasing how acceptable they find actions that have received past investment (Experiment 2). We find these results in contexts where continuing would lead to no obvious benefit and only further harm. We also find initial evidence that the bias has a larger impact on judgment in immoral compared to non-moral contexts. Our findings illustrate a novel way that the past can affect moral judgment. Implications for rational moral judgment and models of moral cognition are discussed.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S193029750000543X/type/journal_articlesunk costsmoralitydecision-makingjudgmentopen dataopen materialspreregistered |
| spellingShingle | Ethan A. Meyers Michał Białek Jonathan A. Fugelsang Derek J. Koehler Ori Friedman Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment Judgment and Decision Making sunk costs morality decision-making judgment open data open materials preregistered |
| title | Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment |
| title_full | Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment |
| title_fullStr | Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment |
| title_short | Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment |
| title_sort | wronging past rights the sunk cost bias distorts moral judgment |
| topic | sunk costs morality decision-making judgment open data open materials preregistered |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S193029750000543X/type/journal_article |
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