| Abstract: | Entrapment is a process in which decision makers escalate their commitment of resources to a failing course of action. This persistence can have devastating consequences for both individuals and organizations. The present study was designed to determine if 1) decision makers' investment behavior would be affected by the behavior of a model, and 2) if the influence of the model would vary depending on the point in the entrapment process at which the model was introduced. Because of the cognitive and psychological changes believed to accompany increased investment, it was predicted that the model would have a greater influence on investment behavior early, rather than later in the entrapment process. Strong support for the first proposition was found, suggesting that exposure to withdrawing models may be used profitably to help reduce decision makers' tendency to become entrapped. Statistical support for the second proposition was not found. Models did not have a significantly greater impact when presented early, rather than later in the entrapment process, although the means were in the predicted direction. This result may be due to the fact that the task did not generally prove to be highly entrapping for subjects. Future research is needed using more highly entrapping tasks. Additional research for the future is to study the generalizability of modeling effects from laboratory settings to organizational settings. |
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