Have you ever encountered a subpar hotel breakfast while on holiday? You don’t really like the food choices on offer, but since you already paid for the meal as part of your booking, you force ...

If so, congratulations—you’ve met the sunk cost fallacy, one of the brain’s most stubborn little traps.It’s the mental trick that convinces us to keep throwing time, money, and energy into ...

The sunk cost fallacy addresses the tendency of people to continue on a suboptimal path because they have committed a lot of time or resources to it already. Investors, for example, may double down on ...

As some Republicans express buyer's remorse about Donald Trump's selection of J.D. Vance as the “worst choice” for vice president and Joe Biden ditches his stubbornness about staying in the 2024 ...

Suppose that, seeking a fun evening out, you pay $175 for a ticket to a new Broadway musical. Seated in the balcony, you quickly realize that the acting is bad, the sets are ugly and no one, you ...

A sunk cost refers to any money, time, or resources that have been irretrievably spent and cannot be recovered, regardless of any future actions or decisions. Once incurred, this cost is permanently ...

Have you continued with a project long after you should have abandoned it? Persevered with a relationship even after the point of no return? Dragged yourself to an event in miserable weather just ...