Throwing good effort after bad: Evidence for a sunk-cost effect in cognitive effort-based decision-making

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Decision-making science

Background:

• The sunk-cost effect is a bias where past investments influence future choices, primarily studied in economic contexts.
• Evidence for sunk-cost effects involving non-monetary costs, like cognitive effort, remains inconclusive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the presence and impact of sunk-cost effects related to cognitive effort.
• To assess how prior effort investment influences subsequent decisions to continue or abandon tasks.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with healthy adults using an effort investment task.
• Participants' choices to exert further cognitive effort were recorded after varying levels of prior effort investment.

Main Results:

• Prior resource (effort) investment significantly increased participants' willingness to exert additional cognitive effort.
• Higher prior effort investments led to a greater likelihood of continuing a course of action, especially when increased effort was required.

Conclusions:

• The study provides strong evidence for an effort-based sunk-cost effect.
• Past effort investments significantly influence current choice behavior, suggesting a need to update cost-benefit models of effort.