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Resumen
La falacia del costo irrecuperable (SCF, por sus siglas en inglés) se produce cuando una persona realiza una inversión con una baja probabilidad de pago porque se realizó una inversión anterior. Las inversiones pueden ser tiempo, esfuerzo o dinero. Diferentes investigadores demostraron que las inversiones previas más grandes tenían mayor probabilidad de conducir al SCF que las inversiones más bajas, aunque pocas investigaciones se han centrado en comparar los tipos de inversión. Existen varias teorías de la SCF, pero pocas han incluido la aversión a las pérdidas, mayor sensibilidad a las pérdidas que a las ganancias, como un factor potencial. Estudiamos los efectos diferenciales del monto y el tipo de inversión en la ocurrencia de la SCF y exploramos la aversión a la pérdida como una posible explicación de estas diferencias. Se contó con 168 participantes, quienes completaron una tarea de costo irrecuperable, así como una tarea de efecto de dotación, que fue una medida de la aversión a la pérdida. Se utilizó un ANCOVA de diseño mixto de 3×3 en el que la puntuación de SCF fue la variable dependiente y las puntuaciones de aversión a la pérdida se usaron como covariables. El SCF se produjo con mayor frecuencia en relación al dinero, seguido por el tiempo y, por ultimo, al esfuerzo. La aversión a la pérdida mostró una relación negativa débil con el SCF.
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