The Absence of a Sunk Cost Effect in a Long Shot Gamble and Scams

Abstract

Why do people fall for scams? This paper presents an experiment about the effect of a sunk cost on unwise decision making. This experiment portrays a scam involved in a long shot gamble. The experiment uses two conditions; one condition hosts the sunk cost effect, and the other without the effect. These two conditions help reveal the fact if a sunk cost effect indeed presents itself in scams. The results of said experiment did not indicate a significant difference between the two conditions, suggesting that a sunk cost effect most likely does not play a big role in scams.