Commitment and consistency bias

Biological Parallel

Once a salmon commits to spawning migration, turning back is catastrophic—energy already spent can't be recovered. This sunk cost creates commitment: finish or die trying. Behavioral consistency evolved as a heuristic in sequential decisions where reversal costs exceed completion costs. From bird migration to elephant musth cycles, commitment mechanisms prevent dithering when switching costs are high. The bias becomes maladaptive only when conditions change faster than the organism can detect.