title: Optimism as modifier of escalation of commitment.
abstract: To study whether optimism-pessimism modifies escalation of commitment, 52 undergraduates were told that they had made an unsuccessful investment, then they chose to continue or discontinue this investment. Optimism about future returns was induced in one group by varying the probability of a successful outcome from an initial low to medium, pessimism was induced in another group by varying this probability from an initial high to medium. Supporting the assumption of the manipulation, the results showed that optimistic participants preferred to continue investments whereas pessimistic participants preferred not to. As predicted, when the sunk cost increased, optimism led to escalation of commitment, whereas pessimism led to de-escalation of commitment. These effects were strengthened when probability of a successful outcome was ambiguous.
authors.affiliation: Göteborg University, Sweden. Asgeir.Juliusson@psy.gu.se
authors.forename: Asgeir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Juliusson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male