When success breeds failure: the role of self-efficacy in escalating commitment to a losing course of action
✍ Scribed by Glen Whyte; Alan M. Saks; Sterling Hook
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 208 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-3796
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The search for individual dierences relevant to behavior in escalation situations has met with little success. Continuing the search, this study investigated self-ecacy judgments as a potentially important individual dierence in escalating commitment to a losing course of action. Predictions derived from self-ecacy theory suggest that selfpercepts of high ecacy would exacerbate the economically irrational escalation bias whereas self-percepts of low ecacy would diminish it. These predictions were consistently supported in this laboratory study where business students responded to decision dilemmas in which funds had been committed to a failing course of action. Theoretical and practical implications of these ®ndings are drawn for the escalation and self-ecacy literatures.