Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behaviour or endeavour due to previously invested resources (time, money or effort) (Arkes & Blumer, 1985). This fallacy, related to loss aversion and status quo bias, can also be viewed as bias resulting from an ongoing commitment.
(Source: https://www.behavioraleconomics.com)
If you see how sunk cost fallacy operates on our culture and traditions, you find why we continue to practice things we see as irrelevant and, in some cases, counter-productive. Let us consider only one resource, time. Most of the societal culture we see today takes hundreds of years to establish. It is like that story of the monkeys.
A researcher put five monkeys in a cage. He hangs a bunch of bananas in the cage. When the monkeys try to make a pyramid and grab the bananas, the researcher puts cold water on the monkeys. After a couple of attempts, the monkeys stop trying. The researcher then replaces one of the monkeys with a new monkey. When this new monkey tries to reach the bananas, all other monkeys pull him back and beat him. The researcher continues to replace monkeys. The monkeys continue to pull back the new one and beat him. The funny thing is, this tradition continues even after replacing all the original five monkeys. None of the monkeys in the cage now don't have experience with cold water showers. It's now the culture in the cage to pull the new monkey away from bananas and beat it.
Thus, to question our conditioning is to give away all our accumulations. It is to declare that most of the so-called 'societal culture' is useless and irrelevant. It is to acknowledge that it is a waste of time and a waste of lives of hundreds of human beings. The only way to validate all those lives is to continue with our culture and traditions.
Comentários