The Daily Stat from Harvard Business Review

 

January 22, 2016 The More NFL Players Make, the More Playing Time They Get Sunk costs affect experts’ high-stakes decisions, suggests a study by Quinn A. W. Keefer at California State University San Marcos. Keefer found that in the NFL, a player’s salary cap value (fixed for a given season, and so a major sunk cost to teams) affects his number of games started, even after controlling for performance. A 15% increase in compensation has an effect on playing time equivalent to an increase of five to eleven solo tackles for linebackers, one to two interceptions for defensive backs, and two to five-and-a-half sacks for defensive linemen. This effect remains even when teams get performance feedback and persists throughout an average player’s entire career, suggesting that the effect of compensation on playing time is being caused by the sunk-cost fallacy, not simply lack of data. Source: Performance Feedback Does Not Eliminate the Sunk-Cost Fallacy: Evidence From Professional Football

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