Lesson Seven: Why Do We Watch Terrible Movies?

I am sure you have an experience of going to a movie which turned out as bad one. Did you walk out of the theater as soon as you realize this?. Most probably not !!.

What about  the food you have ordered that is not tasting good? But, you still try hard to finish it. Right?

Are you ready to sell off your investment which you know is not going to yield better returns any time?.  What about continuing in the same organization even though you know you are not going to progress/enjoy?

All the above are due to “Sunk Cost Fallacy”.  Somehow human beings got this interesting discomfort on “not wasting” mentality.

Even though your movie is not good you will continue because you have an internal fear of “wasting money/effort,etc”. So you continue with it. But you could use you this time for something else which might give better return.

We continue with many things in life (Investments, businesses, career, relationships, etc) just “because you have already spent some thing” (money or effort).

When we apply rational thinking we realize that the sunk cost is some thing that is gone and will never come back. And by holding on to the same thing, we lose many things which are far more valuable in the future.