Letting past investment influence decisions instead of future benefits.

• A. Commitment bias
• B. Loss aversion
• C. Irrational continuation
• D. Status quo bias

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is the tendency to keep investing in something because of what you’ve already put in, rather than judging what will be best for the future. This is the sunk cost/continuation pattern: past investments unduly influence current choices, leading you to persist even when future benefits don’t justify it. The option describes this as irrational continuation, which fits the concept exactly because it names the irrational persistence driven by prior costs rather than by what makes sense going forward.

Think of continuing a project you’ve already spent a lot on simply because you’ve already sunk money into it, even if shutting it down would be the smarter move now. That’s the essence of letting past investment drive the decision rather than future benefits.

Other biases tilt decisions in different directions—commitment bias is about staying loyal to a prior choice, loss aversion is about avoiding losses, and status quo bias is a preference for the current state. None capture the specific pull of past investments on future decisions as precisely as irrational continuation.