Nonrational escalation of commitment in negotiation

In business, as in other forms of human activity, negotiators can fall into traps and make choices and behave in ways which act against their own selfinterest and that of the organizations they represent -- sometimes with catastrophic consequences. A common trap is that of nonrationally escalating a commitment to a previous course of action. Giving case studies in America of such events. Max Bazerman and Margaret Neale identify three critical psychological motives for managers (and others) to escalate initial commitments into a competitive spiral that can ultimately be very damaging. Such escalation can even occur without competition.