Sunk cost trap and its effect on persons perceptions in decision process

Some times in spite of investment failure (lose of time and money) people insist on endurance of investment failure (representative of gamblers behavior). This phenomenon was known "Sunk Cost". The aim of the current research was to investigate the cause of sunk cost via experimental research. The sample was 180 students of educational science and psychology of university of Isfahan selected randomly. Experimental design was some wignet scenario about incomplete project and ask them to decide about it. It is assumed that prior money allocations with percent increment in cost, the probability of reinvestment was added. Finding via one way ANOVA and second degree and linearal regression analysis show that prior money allocation did not accept as lost, so invest additional resource in the hope of erasing their loses. Results were explained by contribution of to theories, namely: cognitive dissonance and self justification.