What it is
In an auction with uncertain value, the winner tends to be the one who overestimated most, and so overpays.
Example Winning a bidding war and discovering the item was worth far less.
Related
References
- Wikipedia: Winner's curse en.wikipedia.org
- The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia: Cognitive bias codex en.wikipedia.org
More in “Deciding and acting: incentives, loss and commitment”
Overconfidence effectLoss aversionSunk-cost fallacyCognitive dissonanceMotivated reasoningIncentive super-response tendencyStatus quo biasEndowment effectOptimism biasPlanning fallacyOutcome biasHyperbolic discountingScarcity errorAffect heuristicAction biasOmission biasDefault effectFear of regretAmbiguity aversionParadox of choiceDecision fatigueProcrastinationHedonic treadmillMental accountingEffort justificationIllusion of controlHouse-money effectMotivation crowdingNeomaniaNot-invented-here syndromeInability to close doorsOverthinkingStrategic misrepresentationDéformation professionnelleZeigarnik effectIllusion of skillDomain dependenceBeginner's luckSleeper effect"Get worse before it gets better" fallacyVolunteer's folly