Commitment bias

I was sharing with a colleague today the issue I’m having with a client who is refusing to consider some evidence that may call into question the entire premise of a piece of work they’re leading.

My colleague reminded me the concept of commitment bias sometimes called the sunk-cost bias, or the sunk-cost fallacy. Perhaps we simple call it pride. 

In any case, in this situation with my client, we have a classic example. There are just too many stakeholders ‘bought in’, too many public pronouncements made, to consider that they might be on the wrong track. 

I wonder how many billions, indeed trillions of dollars, this quirk of human nature must cost us as a society.