Escalation of commitment

Escalation of commitment is what happens when we get too invested in something and stick with it, even when it isn’t going great. It’s like when you really, really want candy but you have no money to buy it, so you keep asking your parents for it, even though you know they won’t give it to you. That’s escalation of commitment. It’s when you invest more and more money, or time, or energy in something, even though it’s not going very well. When you keep escalating your commitment, it’s usually because you want to prove you were right about the decision you made, or because you don’t want to admit that you were wrong.