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Previous research has shown that individuals are most likely to escalate the amount of resources committed to a course of action when they have been personally responsible for negative consequences. The present study examined the process of escalation over three points in time and under four experimental conditions. A 2 X 2 X 3 factorial experiment was conducted in which personal responsibility, efficacy of resources, and time were the independent variables, and commitment of resources to a course of action was the dependent variable. The results replicated the escalation effect over an immediate time period, but showed that investment of resources in a course of action was not stable over time. Although there were immediate effects of personal responsibility and efficacy of resources upon escalation behavior, these two variables interacted with the time factor.
Staw et al. (Sun,) studied this question.