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Escalation of commitment

Investing more in a failing course of action to defend or justify earlier decisions.

Published 04 August 2026Updated 04 August 2026

Escalation of commitment extends the sunk-cost pattern through repeated doubling down, often under pressure from ego, reputation, or group dynamics. Predefined stop rules and reviews by people not responsible for the original choice can reduce it.

Sources

Debiasing Decisions: Improved Decision Making With a Single Training Intervention

Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences / 2015 / Paper

Longitudinal experiments testing video and game-based debiasing interventions.