https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jddm <p>JDDM publiziert Forschungsergebnisse zu Entscheidungefindung und Problemlösen von menschlichen Individuen und Teams in komplexen und dynamischen Umgebungen. Das umfasst (unter anderem) Forschung zu Dynamischer Entscheidungsfindung, Komplexem Problemlösen, Kollaborativem Problemlösen, und Weisheit</p> Heidelberg University Publishing en-US Journal of Dynamic Decision Making 2365-8037 <div><p> </p><p>Papers accepted for publication in JDDM will be published under the following Creative Commons licence <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license">(Please click on the icon for more details</a>):</p><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license"><img style="border-width: 0;" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag" /></a></p><p> </p><p>Authors are allowed to hold copyright without restrictions and to retain publishing rights without restrictions.</p></div> https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jddm/article/view/106637 <p>The sunk-cost effect (SCE) is the tendency to continue investing in an unsuccessful activity because of previous investments that cannot be recovered. We examine the SCE when continued investment is dishonest and unfair, and whether moral identity predicts decision-making in sunk-cost moral scenarios. Moral identity is the degree of importance of being moral to one’s sense of identity, and prior research has found moral identity predicts moral behaviour. We find that the SCE was smaller if continuing with the sunk-cost decisions were dishonest and unfair, and stronger moral identity predicted lower likelihood to continue investment if doing so was dishonest and unfair. Participants were also more likely to cite moral reasons for their decisions than sunk-cost reasons in scenarios that sunk costs were high and continuing would be dishonest and unfair. We suggest people place a greater importance on being honest and fair compared to paying off previous investments, especially for those with a stronger moral identity. These findings may help explain decision-making in situations where sunk costs are at odds with moral considerations.</p> Zachariah Hamzagic Tobias Krettenauer Copyright (c) 2025 Zach, Tobias Krettenauer http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 2025-06-12 2025-06-12 11 10.11588/jddm.2025.1.106637