Escalation of Commitment

Putting more into a failing course of action because you were the one who chose it. In Barry Staw's 1976 study "Knee-Deep in the Big Muddy," people who were personally responsible for a bad investment put more money into it than people who weren't.

Source: Escalation of commitment (Wikipedia).

See also: Sunk Cost Fallacy, Project Escalation, Exit Champion. From How do organizations throw (AI) stuff away?

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# Oct 23, 2026