One trap managers should be aware of when it comes to sunk costs is the sunk cost fallacy. The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.
Economists tell us we should avoid falling into this trap in the decision-making process that justifies a bad decision based on previously incurred costs that no longer bear relevance to the decision at hand.
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Sunk Costs are explicit and appear on financial statements so it is understandable why these costs are honed in on. Opportunity Costs are implicit and unseen, so they are often overlooked.
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The idea is part of this collection:
Learn more about moneyandinvestments with this collection
The impact of opportunity cost on personal and professional life
Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of different choices
Understanding the concept of opportunity cost
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Similar ideas to Sunk Cost Fallacy
Humans are especially susceptible to the “sunk cost fallacy”—a psychological effect where we feel compelled to continue doing something just because we’ve already put time and effort into it.
But the reality is that no matter what you spend your time doing, you can never get that time ba...
It plays on this tendency of ours to emphasize loss over gain.
The term sunk cost refers to any cost that has been paid already and cannot be recovered. The reason we can't ignore the cost, even though it's already been paid, is that we're wired to feel loss far more strongly than g...
We want to finish what we've started because of previously invested resources, even if it is better to quit and use our limited resources elsewhere for better returns.
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