Personality

Personality does influence our decisions.
Specific facets of conscientiousness, rather than the broad trait itself, may affect escalation of commitment.

Two such faces - achievement striving and dutifulness - actually have opposite effects.
- Achievement-striving people are more likely to escalate their commitment, whereas dutiful people are less likely.

People with high self-esteem are strongly motivated to maintain it, so they use the self-serving bias to preserve it. They blame others for their failures while taking credit for successes.