An Experiment Study On The Agent's Escalation Of Commitment

Escalation of commitment is the individuals or organizations continue to insist on a project tend to have failing tendency, this will continue the expansion of the existing losses. This kind of irrational behaviors is common in social life. In Principal-Agent Relationships, the escalation of commitment of an agent will hurt the interests of the principal and how to cut down this irrational behavior has become a practical significance subject.This study is based on self-justfication theory, agency theory and decision dilemma theory, focusing on the agents in Chinese cultural. This study disscusses the influence of responsibilities, alternative and clear negative feedback on escalation of commintment of agents in different information conditions.In this study, 164 graduate students and 220 undergraduate students from Soochow University were tested in two different information conditions. The conclusions are as follows:1.Responsibility does not always have remarkable significant difference on escalation of commintment of the agent. In symmetry information condition, there was unremarkable significant difference on the responsibility and escalation of commintment of the agent. But in asymmetric information condition, high-responsibility will lead the escalation of commitmet.2.Alternative has a significant effect on the escalation of commitmet of a agent, not only in in symmetry information condition but also in asymmetric information condition.3.Ambiguous negative feedback does not have effect on the escalation of commintment of the agent. But clear negative feedback has effect on the escalation of commintment. The agent's escalation of commitmet will change with the emergence of alternative in clear negative feedback conditions. In high negative feedback condition,alternative to reduce the agent's escalation of commitment; but in low negative feedback condition, alternative has little effect.