Sunk Cost Fallacy: The Boring Movie

Duchess spent $5 renting out this movie, she's gonna finish it.

New rule: If the movie is boring within the first 15 minutes, stop watching

Want to learn more about the Sunk Cost fallacy? Check out our activity pack for fun activities that help you spot this common logical fallacy.

Sunk Cost Fallacy in a Nutshell

The Sunk Cost Fallacy is when you keep going with something bad because you've already put time, money, or effort into it - even though stopping would be the smarter move.

Duchess spent $5 on this movie. At minute 15 she knew. Bad movie. The smart thing was obvious: turn it off, go live her life. Instead she stayed. Not because it got better. Because she'd already started. An hour in, she still hadn't stopped. Two hours in, she'd gone too far to quit. Three hours later, the credits rolled and the remote met the wall.

Here's the thing: the $5 was gone whether she watched it or not. The only question was how many more hours to add to the pile. That's the fallacy - past costs don't change whether something is worth continuing. They just feel like they do.

New rule: if it's boring in 15 minutes, it was always going to be boring in three hours.

See all 24 fallacies in What Are the Most Common Logical Fallacies?

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