Cailyn Kim

Do interpersonal sunk costs change the effect of the sunk cost fallacy differently depending on gender?

Started Feb. 24, 2023

Abstract or project description

The project is focused on the sunk cost fallacy (SCF), a cognitive bias that affects one’s decision making, hindering the appeal of quitting a course of action. The SCF is largely influenced by the type of sunk cost, and we specifically focus on interpersonal sunk costs (sunk costs that are not one’s own). Cailyn is focusing on how gender may relate to susceptibility of the sunk cost fallacy, with a focus on interpersonal costs. Quitting is a powerful tool to achieve one’s goals, and because women are often socialized to have less confidence in themselves and sacrifice more for others, Cailyn hypothesizes that they will react differently when the sunk costs are social or non-social. To test this hypothesis, Cailyn plans to analyze publicly available datasets and write a paper summarizing the findings from her analysis, ultimately with the goal of submitting said paper to a student journal.