Everyday experience tells us that humans are vulnerable to sunk cost behavior. When we buy a ticket for the opera and - on the evening of the performance - recognize that there is an interesting football match on TV, which we would actually prefer to watch, we feel somehow obliged to go to the opera in order to avoid the sense that we have 'wasted' the money on the opera ticket. |
You don't want to waste the ticket in that example. But that is irrational because you have already spent the money. |