Escalation of commitment is the tendency to keep investing in a course of action after the evidence says it is failing. The money, time or reputation already spent feels like a reason to continue, even though those costs cannot be recovered and only future outcomes can still change. Economists call the core version the sunk-cost fallacy, and it shows up in governments, companies and private life alike. Researchers in organisational behaviour, economics and psychology have studied it for decades, and they treat it as irrational because it breaks basic cost-benefit reasoning. The usual warning is to stop digging when you find yourself in a hole.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.