Escalation of commitment is independent of numeracy and cognitive reflection. Failed replication and extension of Staw (1976)

Białek Michał (), Węgrzyn Michał () and Meyers Ethan A. ()
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Białek Michał: Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wrocław, Poland
Węgrzyn Michał: Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wrocław, Poland
Meyers Ethan A.: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology Building, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

Economics and Business Review, 2021, vol. 7, issue 2, 5-16

Abstract: First demonstrated by Staw (1976), escalation of commitment is the tendency for an individual to increase their commitment to a failing course of action when they are personally responsible for the negative consequences. An attempt was made to replicate this finding and test whether individual differences in numeracy and cognitive reflection could help explain such an effect. No evidence for escalation of commitment amongst the participants was found (N = 365). Participants simply invested more in more promising projects. Also, no evidence was found that numeracy or cognitive reflection predict escalation behaviour. The validity of escalation of commitment behaviour is discussed which suggests that future work should look to explore the boundary conditions of such an effect.

Keywords: escalation of commitment; sunk cost; numeracy; cognitive reflection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:ecobur:v:7:y:2021:i:2:p:5-16:n:6

DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2021.2.2

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