Question:
Explain how the example from the professor’s lecture illustrate irrational commitment.
Sample answer:
The irrational commitment is a tendency to continue a project even if the project is more likely to fail than succeed. This tendency can be especially strong when people feel that others are judging the success or failure of their projects. In the professor’s personal example, he wanted to buy an old house. But his wife said it was in no good condition and didn’t want to buy it. He convinced his wife to buy the house and decided to fix the house before they live in. However, house turned out to have many problems, the professor had to spend huge amount of money to fix the damaged roof and electrical problems. Then his wife reminded him of her earlier doubts. But he became more determined than ever. Even if the problem of the house got worse and took more money to fix, he just kept going, because he didn’t want his wife to think he was wrong for not following her advice. In other words, he didn’t want his wife to judge his success or failure.
