Is it really worth it? Effort justification.

Cognative dissonance is a theory proposed by Leon Festinger (Festinger, 1957) which proposes that when our behaviors and beliefs are incongruent, we experience a degree of psychological discomfort. In order to alleviate this, we change our attitudes to match our behavior. One way by which people alleviate cognitive dissonance is a process called effort justification (Aronson & Mills, 1959). Effort justification is a way in which people rationalize their attitudes towards something because they have worked so hard on it (Aronson & Mills, 1959).

One example of effort justification would be my refusal to let go of my piece of crap Honda Civic because I've put so much work into it. Over the course of time which i have had it, I have replaced the entire steering system, 3/4 of the suspension, both drive axles (one of them three times), along with four different engine sensors. And yet despite all of my hard work, it is still a money pit, relatively unsafe, and generally a hunk of crap. The driver door leaks, the two back doors don't work, all of the tint has come off, but decided to leave behind some intense glue residue on all of the glass, making it neigh on impossible to see out of the car, and the car's vitals hold fluids like a sieve (the freon, clutch, power steering, and oil systems all have pretty substantial leak issues). Why in the world, then, would someone like myself so avid about automobile performance choose to drive this kind of machine? The answer lies mostly in the fact that I've worked so freaking hard to keep that thing running in the first place that I am unwilling to let all of that work "go to waste" by getting a different car. Does this make sense? No, but somehow every time I get into my car, all i can think of is how many hours i've spent underneath it making it drivable.

Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177-181. doi:10.1037/h0047195.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press. Retrieved from PsycINFO database.