Sunk Cost Fallacy — What Is It?

The sunk cost fallacy is a cognitive bias where a person insists on pursuing something that is clearly not paying off simply because the person has already spent so much time and resources into that pursuit.

This fallacy can be seen everywhere in one’s life. Perhaps, we want to keep doing a project that is clearly not producing desirable results simply because we have already so much time and money into the project. The same can said of the desire to keep studying something we do not want and provides few prospects for the job market simply because we have spent many years pursuing that journey.

Obviously, there is something to be said about balancing between being patient and knowing when it is time to stop. If you cannot stop simply because you have come so far, even when things are not working out, it’s time to take a step back and assess if it is not sunk cost fallacy at play.