Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

As a start to understanding why people get locked into losing courses of action, let’s look first at what a purely rational decision-making approach would be. Consider, for example, the decision to pursue or scuttle an R&D or a marketing project. On the basis of future prospects, you’d have made the initial decision to pursue the project, and enough time would have passed to see how things were going. Ideally, you’d then reassess the situation and decide on future action. If you were following a fully rational approach, whatever losses might have occurred before this decision point would be irrelevant for your reassessment. With a cold, clear eye, you’d view the prospects for the future as well as your available options. Would the company be better off if it got out, continued with the project, or decided to invest more resources in it? You’d treat any previous expenses or losses as sunk costs, things that had happened in the past, not to be considered when you viewed the future.