From forcing yourself to finish a book you’re not enjoying to remaining in an unhappy long-term relationship, what is the sunk cost fallacy and how can we break free?

It makes sense that the things that we’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and even money into become valuable to us by virtue of being something we’ve worked hard on. When something has taken so much from us in order to be achieved, the idea of letting it go or changing direction isn’t a straightforward or even appealing one. But, sometimes, this mindset can become a trap, holding us back from better and more fulfilling things.

The ‘sunk cost fallacy’ is a cognitive bias that centres on the feeling that you should continue putting your energy into a situation because you have already ‘sunk’ so much into it so far. To some extent, this reaction can seem quite rational. When you’ve put so much into something, the idea of walking away can feel wasteful – but could that belief be holding us back from better things?

Although ‘sunk cost’ is a term you may hear in relation to economics, the sunk cost fallacy refers to any situation in our lives where we may experience this belief. This can range from relatively small things – such as finishing reading a book that we’re not enjoying, simply because we have started it – all the way up to some of life’s biggest choices, including remaining in unhappy long-term relationships, pursuing education we feel no passion for, sticking to a career track that no longer fulfils us, and any number of other scenarios where a fear of the ‘sunk cost’ feels greater than what would be gained should you change direction.

It’s an experience that has been well-researched, with one study, published in The Journal of Personality finding a positive correlation between anxiety and the sunk cost fallacy and a negative correlation between depression and committing the fallacy. Considering why this might be, the study authors believe that those who live with depression are more likely to see their environment as something that is out of their control and also have been shown to underestimate their chances of success compared to those who are not depressed, and so tend to avoid being drawn in by the positive expectation of the future, which is at the core of this cognitive trap.

Other studies have found links between anger, stress, cooperation, fear, and even age as a factor in how this fallacy plays out. But it’s also something that we can recognise in our culture. The idea of perseverance, or dedication, and commitment are all highly heralded qualities – particularly when considering positive traits in the workplace, but also in other examples. Long-term relationships are often judged favourably on the fact of their length alone, without always investigating the day-to-day experience. And the same can be said for other types of relationships, such as friendships we made early in life, but that may no longer serve us as we have grown and changed with time.

The reason that this fallacy is both so alluring and so potentially damaging, is that it presents perseverance as the correct decision, even in cases when there may be more to gain by cutting your losses and changing direction. It can hold you back in both big and small ways – and so if this is a trap you often find yourself in, perhaps it’s time to break free.

A study, published in Psychological Science, found that the sunk cost fallacy could be reduced by soothing negative mindsets through tools such as mindfulness and meditation – which makes sense. Becoming aware of this limiting mindset is something that will shine an awful lot of light on it, and will allow you to take a step back and really assess the situation.

You may want to make this assessment by writing down some notes. In some cases, a pros and cons list will go a long way, in other cases you may wish to dig a little deeper into what it is that has led you to believe that you have invested too much into something to let it go. When you take a step back, to take a clear and considered look at the words on the page in front of you, things may suddenly fall into place and you could walk away with a fresh new perspective.

In other cases, you may wish to work through your experiences with a mental health professional such as a counsellor or life coach. Sometimes, the attitudes and beliefs that we hold onto and have been built up over a lifetime can be tricky to untangle, but with support and guidance progress is possible.

So, what could be waiting for you on the other side of this common but stifling mental trap?