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: | http://journal.sjdm.org/19/190909b/jdm190909b.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797727452862087168 |
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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 | 2024-03-12T10:59:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d1c286a678fc4048b8fe8de6c2dbeaa3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1930-2975 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T10:59:56Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Judgment and Decision Making |
| spelling | doaj.art-d1c286a678fc4048b8fe8de6c2dbeaa32023-09-02T05:53:21ZengCambridge University PressJudgment and Decision Making1930-29752019-11-01146721727Wronging past rights: The sunk cost bias distorts moral judgmentEthan A. MeyersMichał BiałekJonathan A. FugelsangDerek J. KoehlerOri FriedmanWhen 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.http://journal.sjdm.org/19/190909b/jdm190909b.pdfsunk costs morality decision-making judgment open data open materials preregisterednakeywords |
| 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 preregisterednakeywords |
| 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 preregisterednakeywords |
| url | http://journal.sjdm.org/19/190909b/jdm190909b.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ethanameyers wrongingpastrightsthesunkcostbiasdistortsmoraljudgment AT michałbiałek wrongingpastrightsthesunkcostbiasdistortsmoraljudgment AT jonathanafugelsang wrongingpastrightsthesunkcostbiasdistortsmoraljudgment AT derekjkoehler wrongingpastrightsthesunkcostbiasdistortsmoraljudgment AT orifriedman wrongingpastrightsthesunkcostbiasdistortsmoraljudgment |