When success breeds failure: the role of self-efficacy in escalating commitment to a losing course of action
实验室研究发现，高自我效能感会加剧人们在已投入资金失败时继续追加投入的非理性倾向，而低自我效能感则减轻这一偏差，对理解个体决策差异有启示。
The search for individual differences relevant to behavior in escalation situations has met with little success. Continuing the search, this study investigated self-efficacy judgments as a potentially important individual difference in escalating commitment to a losing course of action. Predictions derived from self-efficacy theory suggest that self-percepts of high efficacy would exacerbate the economically irrational escalation bias whereas self-percepts of low efficacy 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 findings are drawn for the escalation and self-efficacy literatures. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.