THE EVOLUTIONARY LOGIC OF HONORING SUNK COSTS.
Although economics claims that sunk costs should not figure in current decision-making, there is ample evidence to suggest that people squander resources by honoring bygones. We argue that such wastage of resources was tolerated in our evolutionary past by Nature because it served fitness-enhancing...
| Publicado en: | Economic Inquiry Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 835 - 847 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Apr2016
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=113307278&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 113307278 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00952583 EIQ jtl: Economic Inquiry issn: 00952583 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Apr2016 vid: 54 iid: 2 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 113307278 10.1111/ecin.12287 ppf: 835 ppct: 12 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 191KB tig: atl: THE EVOLUTIONARY LOGIC OF HONORING SUNK COSTS. aug: au: Eswaran, Mukesh Neary, Hugh M. affil: Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada su: Cognitive dissonance Social psychology Self-perception Economics Economic decision making Sunk costs Prefrontal cortex sug: subj: Cognitive dissonance Social psychology Self-perception Economics Economic decision making Sunk costs Prefrontal cortex ab: Although economics claims that sunk costs should not figure in current decision-making, there is ample evidence to suggest that people squander resources by honoring bygones. We argue that such wastage of resources was tolerated in our evolutionary past by Nature because it served fitness-enhancing functions. In this study, we propose and model one such function. We demonstrate how the honoring of sunk costs could have arisen as a commitment device that Nature found expedient for scenarios where conflicts over temptations between the emotional and rational centers of the brain might sabotage long-term investments. By applying this idea to the self-concept, we argue that this model provides a rationale for cognitive dissonance, a well-established phenomenon in social psychology. ( JEL D01, D03) pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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