Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition
by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler
179 Sunk Cost Effect
The tendency to keep investing in an endeavor because of past investments in that endeavor.
People frequently let past investments influence their decision-making. For example, you buy a nonrefundable ticket to a show, decide you no longer want to go, but you go anyway because you paid for it. Rationally speaking, past investments, or sunk costs, should not influence decision-making. Only the cost-benefits of current options should influence decisions.1
Sunk costs refer to any type of prior investment, including money, time, effort, energy, and emotion. For example, the longer one has invested emotionally in a relationship, the harder it is to break up.
When designers invest time and energy in a particular feature or direction, ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access