The Influence Of Mindfulness On The Sunk Cost Effect

Sunk Cost Effect,is a common decision deviation.In daily life and business decisions,people are easily influenced by the past inputs and expected return,make irrational decisions,resulting in a sunk cost effect.Traditional economic theories can only explain the sunk cost effect from the perspective of phenomenology,this article will explore psychological mechanism behind it and interventional methods from the angle of psychology.Mindfulness,argues that consciously,with rapt attention and without judgment to perceive the body and mind.Mindfulness is not only a kind of personality trait,but also a kind of special status,or a meditation training method.Through focusing on breathing or controlling attention,mindfulness may pay more attention to the present,reduce the tendency of focusing on the past or the future,this could provide possibility for gettng rid of or reducing the sunk cost effect.At the same time,the study found that emotions can affect the decision-making,and mindfulness can reduce the negative emotions.Therefore,this article will explore that whether mindful meditation technique can be an effective method that can help individuals refuse sunk cost effect,reduce the decision-making deviation,and whether this method execute through emotions.This paper includes two studies.Study 1 through the questionnaire investigation,investigated 432 people's standard of mindfulness characteristics and the sunk cost effect,explored the relationship between them.Study 2 through empirical study,examined the relationship and mechanism among the state of mindfulness(which is caused by short-term mindfulness voice guide),mood,and the sunk cost effect.Results show that:(1)people with higher levels of the mindfulness traits can better able to reject the sunk cost effect;(2)self-esteem has a significant effect on sunk cost effects,after controlling self-esteem variables,mindfulness are still positively associated with refusing sunk costs score;(3)after short-term mindfulness voice guidance,people under the state of mindfulness are more likely to get rid of the sunk cost effect than daily state of mind wandering;(4)short-term mindfulness guide also has significant effect on mood,which can improve the positive emotions and reduce the negative emotions;(5)negative emotion has a significant effect on the sunk cost effect,and it plays partial intermediary role in the relationship that mindfulness can affect sunk cost effect.Through the study,we found that mindfulness,both as qualities and a state,is able to reduce the sunk cost effect,make people more rational on decision-making.In the future study,can continue to the study of the relationship of mindfulness and decision-making,or other senior psychological process.