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. 2016 Sep 9;6:33171. doi: 10.1038/srep33171

Figure 1. Experimental design.

Figure 1

In each trial, subjects first express a preference for which of two cities to travel to (preference phase). Then they are told they have, by mistake, previously paid for nonrefundable tickets to both cities (which are sunk costs). In the control condition the tickets are priced reasonably and the costs of the two tickets are identical. In the sunk cost condition the ticket for the non-preferred destination is 50% higher than the ticket price from the preferred destination. A decision maker sufficiently influenced by the sunk cost will switch his/her choice in this condition. Figure 1 depicts the case in which New York is chosen in the preference phase. Estimation of the sunk cost effect is also described.