Barry is an organizational behavior professor at UC Berkeley and he coined the concept of escalation of commitment. Escalation of commitment occurs when you're in a situation in which it is possible to add more resources to a course of action or a prior decision in order to rectify a loss. Even Barry can't help but fall victim to escalation from time to time.
In life and work, we have a hard time changing course. When we wind up in a miserable job, a failing project, or a floundering romantic relationship, we rationalize, make excuses, and stick with our bad decisions—even when the writing's on the wall. Why? Usually we assume the driving force is sunk costs: we don't want to admit we've wasted that time or money. But in fact, the root of our stubbornness is a psychological trap called “escalation of commitment.” Once we understand that, we can start taking steps to protect ourselves from… well, ourselves. This is an episode of WorkLife with Adam Grant, another podcast in the TED Audio Collective. For more episodes, find and follow WorkLife wherever you're listening to this.