As humans, we make decisions in every moment and aspect of our daily lives. Cognitive neuroscience research has made great strides in understanding the neural basis of how we make decisions and reach our goals. A greater understanding of these higher-order processes can have great implications for an individual, society, governments, and more. Behavioral economics has identified many heuristics that reduce the complexity of a problem and introduce cognitive biases that may impact our judgments and decisions, such as the sunk cost effect. Sunk costs are spent resources, such as time and money, that cannot be recovered. This cognitive bias is displayed by an individual’s decision to continue investing in the sunk cost choice due to prior resources invested, even when it is no longer beneficial or productive. Such examples include staying in an unsatisfying career due to the many years of education and money spent, or simply continuing to search through the plethora of Netflix options because you have already invested so much time into finding “your next show.”
In the article “Sensitivity to ‘sunk costs’ in mice, rats, and humans,” Sweis and colleagues examine how sunk costs impact both humans and nonhuman animals alike. The researchers developed a time limited task in which the subject first encounters an offer zone where they are presented with the reward and then a wait zone where they decide to quit or commit to receiving the reward. While in the wait zone, the subjects are susceptible to sunk costs and allow for examination of their decision-making process. In their analysis, Sweis et al. found that across all species, the commitment to the sunk cost option increases with increasing investment time. Their research supports the sunk cost effect in decision-making processes, yet, there is still so much to learn about the capacity to resist these biases. Román and colleagues (2019) set out to do just that.
In their article “Cognitive and neural architecture of decision making competence,” conducted a whole-brain, exploratory analysis examining multiple structural MRI measures to investigate whether performance on the Adult Decision Making Competence (A-DMC) is associated with singular differences in cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and cortical gray matter volume. The A-DMC is a psychological assessment of an individual’s capacity to resist standard biases in decision-making including: resistance to framing, recognizing social norms, over/under confidence, applying decision rules, consistency in risk perception, and of course, resistance to sunk costs. These six subsets are computed to provide an overall decision-making competence score, called the decision-making competence latent factor. The researchers applied structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between structural MRI features and the score obtained from the A-DMC. They found a significant degree of spatial similarity for decision-making competence and tests of logical reasoning in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Previous research has determined the dACC as a relevant center for cognitive control and the optimization of choice for adaptive behavior. This pattern of similarity was seen in all of the structural MRI measures. Through their research, Román et al. found that individual differences in the cortical surface area within the left dACC are associated with the human capacity to resist cognitive biases and demonstrate competent decision-making. Their results propose a possible genetic capacity to overcome decision-making biases like the sunk cost effect.
Sweis, B. M., Abram, S. V., Schmidt, B. J., Seeland, K. D., MacDonald, A. W., Thomas, M. J., & Redish, A. D. (2018). Sensitivity to "sunk costs" in mice, rats, and humans. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/178.full.
Francisco J. Román, Roberto Colom, Charles H. Hillman, Arthur F. Kramer, Neal J. Cohen, Aron K. Barbey. (2019). Cognitive and neural architecture of decision making competence.
NeuroImage, 199, 172-193. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.076.
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