What term describes an increased commitment to a previous decision despite negative outcomes?

The term that describes an increased commitment to a previous decision despite negative outcomes is known as escalation of commitment. This behavior occurs when individuals or groups continue to invest in a failing course of action because they have already made significant investments—be it time, resources, or effort—and they hope to recover lost investments or validate their previous decisions. This phenomenon can lead to further losses and poor decision-making as individuals might ignore or downplay contradictory evidence or outcomes that signal that the decision was flawed.

In contrast, availability bias refers to a cognitive bias where individuals rely on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a situation, which does not specifically focus on commitment to past decisions. Randomness error involves the belief that unrelated events are connected or that patterns exist in random data, but does not pertain to commitment behavior. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or decisions, but it does not specifically denote an increase in commitment despite negative feedback.