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Sunk Cost Fallacy

You've already invested so much. That's not a reason to keep going — but your brain will insist that it is.

The sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue something because of what you've already put into it, rather than what you'll actually get out of it going forward. You stay in a bad movie because you paid for the ticket. You finish a book you hate because you're halfway through. You stay in a relationship that makes you miserable because of "all those years." The past investment is gone either way — but it keeps pulling you forward like an anchor.

This scales far beyond personal decisions. People stay loyal to political parties that no longer represent them, because they've voted that way for decades. They defend ideological positions they privately doubt, because admitting they were wrong would mean all that time, energy, and identity was wasted. Religious commitment, career paths, national allegiances — once you've invested enough, walking away feels like losing everything rather than gaining freedom.

Institutions know this. Loyalty programmes, subscription models, and initiation rituals all work on the same principle: the more someone has invested, the harder it is to leave — regardless of whether staying makes sense.

The question that cuts through it: if you were starting fresh today, with no history, would you make the same choice?

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