Professional paper
A Review of Research on the Connection between Sunk Cost Fallacy, Personality Traits, and Psychopathology
Jelena Bačić
Abstract
The sunk cost fallacy is a form of cognitive bias. It entails the continuation
of investment in those activities that have lost their purpose, only because a person has already invested a lot of their resources (effort, time, emotions, etc.) in the said activity. Previous studies have demonstrated that this fallacy affects individuals from all professions, that the susceptibility to it differs according to gender and age, as well as that this fallacy has several behavioral consequences. This research review intended to summarize the findings of several recent studies that investigated the relationship between sunk cost fallacy and personality traits, as well as the relationship between sunk cost fallacy and various psychopathological outlets. The analysis included 9 quantitative studies that were published in the past 10 years. The studies analysis implied that the sunk cost fallacy correlated positively with various psychological impairments (such as depression and anxiety), it increased susceptibility to using psychoactive substances, and, also, the sunk cost fallacy correlated with personality traits, such as conscientiousness and agreeableness. In this paper, I thoroughly reviewed the findings and restrictions of all the studies, and I also discussed the importance of recognizing this form of cognitive bias in people.
Keywords
cognitive bias; personality traits; psychopathology; research review; sunk cost fallacy
Hrčak ID:
313524
URI
Publication date:
19.1.2024.
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