The psychology of sunk cost
Arkes and Blumer's paper is the standard experimental demonstration of the sunk cost effect, and its best-known study was run in the field. Customers approaching the box office of a university theatre were sold season tickets at one of three prices, the full price or one of two discounts, assigned at random rather than chosen. Everyone therefore held the same tickets to the same performances, and the only difference was what they had paid. Those who had paid full price attended more performances over the following months. Since the money was gone in every case and could not be recovered by attending, the difference can only come from the amount spent, which is precisely what should not matter. The paper reports several further experiments alongside it. This page describes the study from a later published review of the literature, because no abstract of the 1985 paper is publicly available.
Arkes and Blumer's paper is the standard experimental demonstration of the sunk cost effect, and its best-known study was run in the field. Customers approaching the box office of a university theatre were sold season tickets at one of three prices, the full price or one of two discounts, assigned at random rather than chosen. Everyone therefore held the same tickets to the same performances, and the only difference was what they had paid. Those who had paid full price attended more performances over the following months. Since the money was gone in every case and could not be recovered by attending, the difference can only come from the amount spent, which is precisely what should not matter. The paper reports several further experiments alongside it. This page describes the study from a later published review of the literature, because no abstract of the 1985 paper is publicly available.
Written from the described in a later published review of this literature, which this vault also cites.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Arkes, H. R. & Blumer, C. (1985). "The Psychology of Sunk Cost." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35(1), 124-140. Full text read 2026-09-02. Experiment 2 is the Ohio University Theater field study: 60 buyers, 6 dropped as couples, leaving 18 at $15, 19 at $2 off and 17 at $7 off. First five plays, tickets used: 4.11, 3.32, 3.29. Last five plays: 2.28, 1.84, 2.18; the groups did not differ over the second half. Experiment 10 found economics training made no difference. Note the internal inconsistency recorded in the vault: Experiment 1 had 54 per cent choosing the sunk-cost option and Experiment 10 got roughly a third from the identical questionnaire, so 54 per cent is not quoted here as the effect's magnitude.
Where we use it
- Why You Finish the Series You Stopped Enjoying, Why We Act
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(85)90049-490049-4)
DOI: 10.1016/0749-5978(85)90049-4