Time pressure, personality, and information availability in escalation of commitment: An application of the Funder Personality Triad

Abstract

The current work focused on the exploration of specific individual differences and task aspects on escalation of commitment. Further, it sought to expand the literature in decision-making by utilizing a specific personality framework, Funder’s personality triad (2001), as a means to explain and analyze the impact of two specific personality traits (need for cognition) and task aspects (time pressure, information availability) on a specific behavior (escalation of commitment). Participants were recruited utilizing an online survey tool. All participants received the same measures (i.e., need for cognition, covariate measures). Task details and components, such as time and information available to complete the task, were specifically manipulated with participants being assigned to one of possible four conditions. Finally, the target behavior, escalation of commitment, was measured by the dollar amount participants invested in their assigned task condition during the completion of the task. Results demonstrated a significant main effect for information availability on escalation of commitment. No significant main effect was observed for time pressure. Further individual’s need for cognition was a significant predictor of escalation of commitment. The interaction hypothesis between personality and each of the task components was not supported. Lastly, supplemental analysis demonstrated that the effects of information and time were strengthened when controlling for each of these aspects (although time remained non-significant).