Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind
People often predict that they, and others, will be biased by sunk costs—they think that investing in an object or goal increases how much one values or wants it. In this article, we use sunk cost predictions to look at people’s theory of mind and their conceptions of mental life. More specifically,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Judgment and Decision Making |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1930297524000251/type/journal_article |
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| _version_ | 1846162512543744000 |
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| author | Amy Howard Claudia Sehl Stephanie Denison Ori Friedman |
| author_facet | Amy Howard Claudia Sehl Stephanie Denison Ori Friedman |
| author_sort | Amy Howard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | People often predict that they, and others, will be biased by sunk costs—they think that investing in an object or goal increases how much one values or wants it. In this article, we use sunk cost predictions to look at people’s theory of mind and their conceptions of mental life. More specifically, we ask which mental states and motivations are seen as underlying the bias. To investigate this, participants in two preregistered experiments predicted whether different kinds of agents would be biased by sunk costs, and also assessed the agents’ mental abilities. Participants predicted that some kinds of agents (e.g., human adults and children, robots) would show the sunk cost bias and that others would not (e.g., raccoons and human babies). These predictions were strongly related to the participants’ assessments of whether the different kinds of agents are capable of seeing actions as wasteful, but also related to their assessments of the agents’ capacities to feel regret and frustration. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e8e59a65538247c29433eff4b446b491 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1930-2975 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Judgment and Decision Making |
| spelling | doaj-art-e8e59a65538247c29433eff4b446b4912024-11-20T07:47:33ZengCambridge University PressJudgment and Decision Making1930-29752024-01-011910.1017/jdm.2024.25Sunk cost predictions as theory of mindAmy Howard0Claudia Sehl1Stephanie Denison2Ori Friedman3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2346-9787Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaPeople often predict that they, and others, will be biased by sunk costs—they think that investing in an object or goal increases how much one values or wants it. In this article, we use sunk cost predictions to look at people’s theory of mind and their conceptions of mental life. More specifically, we ask which mental states and motivations are seen as underlying the bias. To investigate this, participants in two preregistered experiments predicted whether different kinds of agents would be biased by sunk costs, and also assessed the agents’ mental abilities. Participants predicted that some kinds of agents (e.g., human adults and children, robots) would show the sunk cost bias and that others would not (e.g., raccoons and human babies). These predictions were strongly related to the participants’ assessments of whether the different kinds of agents are capable of seeing actions as wasteful, but also related to their assessments of the agents’ capacities to feel regret and frustration.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1930297524000251/type/journal_articlesunk cost biastheory of mindaspects of mental lifewaste |
| spellingShingle | Amy Howard Claudia Sehl Stephanie Denison Ori Friedman Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind Judgment and Decision Making sunk cost bias theory of mind aspects of mental life waste |
| title | Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind |
| title_full | Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind |
| title_fullStr | Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind |
| title_short | Sunk cost predictions as theory of mind |
| title_sort | sunk cost predictions as theory of mind |
| topic | sunk cost bias theory of mind aspects of mental life waste |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1930297524000251/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT amyhoward sunkcostpredictionsastheoryofmind AT claudiasehl sunkcostpredictionsastheoryofmind AT stephaniedenison sunkcostpredictionsastheoryofmind AT orifriedman sunkcostpredictionsastheoryofmind |