Abstract
Individuals often allow prior investments of time, money or effort to influence their current behavior. A tendency to allow previous investments to impact further investment, referred to as the sunk-cost fallacy, may be related to adverse psychological health. Unfortunately, little is known about the relation between the sunk-cost fallacy and psychological symptoms or help seeking. The current study used a relatively novel approach (i.e., Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing [AMT] service) to examine various aspects of psychological health in internet users (n = 1053) that did and did not commit the sunk-cost fallacy. In this observational study, individuals logged on to AMT, selected the “decision making survey” amongst the array of currently available tasks, and completed the approximately 200-question survey (which included a two-trial sunk cost task, the brief symptom inventory 18, the Binge Eating Scale, portions of the SF-8 health survey, and other questions about treatment utilization). Individuals that committed the fallacy reported a greater number of symptoms related to Binge Eating Disorder and Depression, being bothered more by emotional problems, yet waited longer to seek assistance when feeling ill. The current findings are discussed in relation to promoting help-seeking behavior amongst individuals that commit this logical fallacy.
Highlights
Each day we make many decisions that impact our mental and physical health
In addition to replicating previous relations, the present study investigated the relation between committing the sunkcost fallacy and symptoms of BED, depression symptomology, and various self-reported help seeking behaviors
Consistent with previous studies (Bruine de Bruin et al 2007; Strough et al 2008, 2011), individuals that committed the sunk-cost fallacy tended to be younger than those that did not. They reported being significantly more bothered by emotional problems, and reported waiting longer to seek medical attention when they were feeling ill, than individuals that did not commit the sunk-cost fallacy
Summary
We may choose whether or not to exercise, smoke cigarettes, or have that decadent desert. Each of these decisions is undoubtedly influenced by numerous variables, both immediate and temporally distant. Understanding these influences may help us facilitate healthy decisions across a wide range of populations. The sunk-cost fallacy (effect) is one way that temporally distant events may influence current behavior (e.g., medical compliance; Christensen-Szalanski and Northcraft 1985). “The sunk cost effect is a maladaptive economic behavior that is manifested in a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made” (Arkes and Ayton 1999).
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