SUNKEN COST

ABOUT THE GAME

MOTIVATION
SUNKEN COST was made for the Corações Com Coroa association, with the objective of exploring the theme of domestic violence in couple dynamics.

In 2018, 24 women were killed in Portugal as a result of conjugal violence.  As of date (April 7th) 11 women were killed in 2019. Portugal has a population of about 10M.
The CCC Association is a non-profit association and non-governmental organization born in 2012 to promote a culture of solidarity, equal opportunities and socio-affective inclusion of people in situations of vulnerability, risk or poverty.

This game was created as part of the Games For Good 2019 iniciative.

HIGH CONCEPT
We wanted to explore the dynamics between a victim and an agressor and the structural similarities it has with gambling.
Specifically, we wanted to explore:
- how both a victim and a gambler might enter a denial state;
- how they both might feel responsible for outcomes they have no control over;
- how they both might rationalize their loss through the sunk cost fallacy.

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THE SUNK COST FALLACY

WHAT IS THE SUNK COST FALLACY?
Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money or effort, etc). This fallacy, which is related to loss aversion and status quo bias, can also be viewed as bias resulting from an ongoing commitment.

If the costs outweigh the benefits, the extra costs incurred are held in a different mental account than the one associated with the ticket transaction.
For example, individuals sometimes order too much food and then over-eat just to “get their money’s worth”.  Similarly, a person may have a $20 ticket to a concert and then drive for hours through a blizzard, just because she feels that she has to attend due to having made the initial investment. 

HOW DOES THE SUNK COST FALLACY RELATE TO ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS?
Researchers have found that people cling on to unhappy relationships because of the sunk cost fallacy.

For instance, a study involving over 900 people by researchers at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal, shows that the more effort is invested in a relationship, the more the potential victim will commit to that relationship.
"Experiments confirmed the initial hypothesis that investments in terms of time, effort and money make individuals more prone to stay and invest in a relationship in which they are unhappy" the researchers concluded.

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+INFO

CREDITS
Isaque Sanches, João Costa, João Ribeiro, Tiago Marques.

INPUT
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