Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Medical Scientist Training Program, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Science. 2018 Jul 13;361(6398):178-181. doi: 10.1126/science.aar8644.
Sunk costs are irrecoverable investments that should not influence decisions, because decisions should be made on the basis of expected future consequences. Both human and nonhuman animals can show sensitivity to sunk costs, but reports from across species are inconsistent. In a temporal context, a sensitivity to sunk costs arises when an individual resists ending an activity, even if it seems unproductive, because of the time already invested. In two parallel foraging tasks that we designed, we found that mice, rats, and humans show similar sensitivities to sunk costs in their decision-making. Unexpectedly, sensitivity to time invested accrued only after an initial decision had been made. These findings suggest that sensitivity to temporal sunk costs lies in a vulnerability distinct from deliberation processes and that this distinction is present across species.
沉没成本是不可挽回的投资，不应该影响决策，因为决策应该基于预期的未来后果。人类和非人类动物都可以表现出对沉没成本的敏感性，但来自不同物种的报告并不一致。在时间背景下，当一个人因为已经投入的时间而抵制结束一项活动，即使它看起来没有成效，就会产生对沉没成本的敏感性。在我们设计的两个平行觅食任务中，我们发现老鼠、大鼠和人类在决策中表现出类似的对沉没成本的敏感性。出乎意料的是，只有在做出初始决策后，对时间投入的敏感性才会累积。这些发现表明，对时间沉没成本的敏感性存在于一种与深思熟虑过程不同的脆弱性中，而且这种区别存在于不同物种之间。
