Emotional Sunk Costs

A common negotiation technique is to get someone emotionally involved in an agreement and then make slight adjustments just before agreement closure. The negotiating "victim" hasn't lost anything yet, but since his or her emotions have become involved, pulling out of the deal becomes considerably harder.

In Project Management terms, this would be called a sunk cost. You may have no reason whatsoever to continue along a certain path, but because you have already spent some sum of money (your sunk cost), you feel the path still needs to be followed. A similar phenomena occurs with owning a stock you bought at a certain price. You may be unable to sell it until some profit has been realized even though there are far better places for your investment dollars.

Emotional sunk costs are harder to quantify which often makes them easier to justify. This can be particularly true of work related arguments. The real organizational benefit may now be marginal, but because you've already expended large amounts of emotion and energy, you can't stop. Learning to let go at the right time will reap you large benefits.