The availability of the hardback edition of a book can motivate the reader to persistently read the book - a sunk cost effect

Sunk Cost as a Self-Management Device

Careful though. "Just and Wansink (2011) find that the flat-rate pricing such as “all-you-can-eat” buffet pricing can take advantage of the sunk cost effect and thus exacerbate the over-consumption tendency associated with obesity." This unlike a VIP membership in a gym which will render you hyper motivated and pumping iron like Arny.

However, being guided by already sunk costs in investing is a treacherous slope > catching the falling knife effect.

Abstract 

The sunk cost effect has been widely observed in individual decisions. Building on an intrapersonal self-management game, the paper theoretically shows that the sunk cost effect may stem from an attempt to overcome the under-investment problem associated with a high degree of present bias or to resolve the multi-selves coordination problem when the degree of present bias is low. Especially for individuals with severe present bias, the current self may take a costly action (which is a sunk cost for the future self) to signal the individual’s high success probability that motivates his future self-disciplining behaviors. In equilibrium, a higher level of sunk cost is more likely to give rise to a higher probability for the individual to continue the project. We then conduct a laboratory experiment. The empirical findings are consistent with our theoretical implications.

"Our endogenous sunk cost theory may potentially shape marketing theory and practice in important ways. For many investment products involving immediate costs and delayed benefits, the provision of a high-end product with a money-burning sunk cost on the consumer side may facilitate a well-motivated consumer to alleviate his under-investment problem due to the lack of will-power. As mentioned in the introduction, the availability of the hardback edition of a book can motivate the reader to persistently read the book.26 Doing exercise is another investment good. While price discrimination theory partly accounts for the prevalence of Gold’s gym VIP Membership, our self-management model provides a new angle. Purchasing the VIP Membership may have an instrumental value of self-signaling, encouraging the consumers to resolve their procrastination problem in taking exercise. Therefore, an important implication of our paper is that for investment goods with immediate costs and delayed benefits, sellers can take advantage of the sunk cost effect in designing their marketing strategies by providing high-end products with money-burning-like features, as consumers have a demand on these goods when they have under-investment problems.27 While the sunk cost effect could serve as an incentive device in the investment problem for a present-biased consumer, however, a caveat is that this effect may not be as functional in some other cases such as consumption problems involving immediate benefits and delayed costs. In these circumstances, purchasing a high-end product associated with the sunk cost effect may reinforce the adverse effect of over-consumption due to present bias. For example, Just and Wansink (2011) find that the flat-rate pricing such as “all-you-can-eat” buffet pricing can take advantage of the sunk cost effect and thus exacerbate the over-consumption tendency associated with obesity.