Are we all sleepwalking into a sunk coast fallacy?

Joanna Allegra Madison
Nov 6
3 min read

🌙 Are we all sleepwalking into a sunk cost fallacy?

Ever driven somewhere and suddenly realised you don’t remember part of the journey, if any?That moment of autopilot isn’t unusual it’s actually how most of us live.

Research suggests around 90% of our behaviour is habitual and about 65% is influenced by our environment. We like to think we’re consciously steering the ship… but most of the time; we’re being guided by unseen currents.

Neuroscience and psychology propose that our unconscious mind filters and manages a vast amount of information shaping our beliefs, emotions, and our behaviours long before our conscious mind gets involved.

So, here’s the question: If every one of us is perceiving the world through our own filters our experiences, biases, and our emotional states, can we really say there’s one shared reality? Or, are we each walking around in slightly different versions of it?

🤔 Maybe that’s why two people can look at the same situation and see something completely different. Maybe it’s simply because they’re not seeing the same world at all.

💭 The link between autopilot and the sunk cost fallacy

When we operate on autopilot, we’re often running decisions through outdated filters, beliefs, habits and emotional attachments that no longer serve us. One of the clearest examples of this is the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

We usually associate it with money the idea that we continue investing time, effort, or resources into something simply because we’ve already put so much in, and, we can’t stop now. But it’s also a cognitive bias, rooted deep in the unconscious mind.

Often this pattern can be seen in leaders and entrepreneurs: pouring energy into a project, strategy, or partnership that no longer aligns with where they are, yet feeling unable to step away because of the investment already made.

It’s easier to stay on autopilot, to keep doing the same thing, even while hoping for different results.

This can lead to irrational, emotionally driven decisions, often justified as “commitment” or “resilience,” when in truth, it’s the unconscious mind clinging to a familiar pattern.

In business, this might look like a project that’s absorbed huge amounts of time and resources but still isn’t delivering, yet everyone feels compelled to keep going. In personal life, it might be the house that’s become a financial drain, but selling feels like defeat, so more money is poured in, hoping the next fix will be the last.

🧭 How do you know when to walk away?

From a therapeutic perspective, awareness starts with how it feels. I often ask clients:

How is this situation affecting your energy, focus, and wellbeing?
How is it impacting others, your team, your family, your sense of peace?
If you could start again today, would you make the same decision?

These questions help shift attention from the past investment to the present reality.

Interestingly, when people step back and reconnect with what they truly value, not what they’ve already spent, they often see the situation with fresh clarity. Sometimes that means recommitting with renewed purpose. Other times, it means having the courage to let go.

Both choices require consciousness and that’s what this entire conversation is about.

🌀 What this has to do with hypnotherapy

When we work in hypnosis, we’re not putting people to sleep we’re helping them wake up. We access the deeper layers of the mind where these habits, beliefs, and emotional attachments are stored, and create change at a level that’s often beyond conscious awareness.

For leaders, this matters deeply. Because unconscious patterns don’t just shape your personal life they influence your leadership style, decision-making, and even the culture you create.

The truth is, we could all benefit from becoming a little more awake: