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Boosting the self-esteem of someone who's struggling at work may sound like a good idea - but it can backfire, according to new research.

The wrong kind of praise can make people feel defensive and strengthen their determination to prove themselves right, even when they're on the wrong path.

Niro Sivanathan, an assistant professor of management and organizations, made this discovery while studying a problem known in psychology circles as "escalation of commitment" - the tendency to throw good money and time after bad.

Organizational psychologists have been researching this phenomenon for years, because it's so ubiquitous and annoying. The main culprit, scientists agree, is a fragile ego. Admitting we were wrong and correcting our mistakes would threaten our sense of self-worth; so instead, we double down in the hopes it will pay off and redeem us in spectacular fashion.

"It's a vexing bias because it's incredibly hard to disengage," said Prof. Sivanathan, who conducted the escalation of commitment research while at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "People make a decision or are committed toward a certain path, and despite negative feedback they persist on that certain path."

So the study authors decided to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and escalation of commitment. If you feel good about yourself, they hypothesized, you might feel more comfortable admitting mistakes and less desperate to justify a bad decision. Could an ego boost inoculate you against the impulse to double down on a bad bet?

The answer is yes - and no. The first phase of their experiment demonstrated that bolstering self-esteem in general did make people more likely to back off from a bad commitment. But more specific praise had the opposite effect.

Study participants played the role of a manager making a hiring decision. After learning that their chosen candidate performed poorly, the participants were praised either for their ability to make decisions, or for their creativity. Then they were asked how much time and resources they would commit to the underperforming employee they had "hired."

The people who were praised for their decision-making skills - something relevant to their hiring choice - said they would invest significantly more time and money in the failed employee than the other participants. And people in the group praised for creativity - an ego boost irrelevant to the hiring choice - were more likely to cut their losses early than a control group that received no affirmation at all.

The finding is counter-intuitive, Prof. Sivanathan noted. You'd think that telling someone he's a good decision-maker would bolster his self-esteem, and thus enable him to revisit a bad decision without damaging his sense of self-worth.

But the praise backfires, and seems to remind people that they've staked their reputation on their decision-making prowess. This causes them to harden their stance instead of reconsider it.

"You need to disconnect the praise from the decision," said study co-author Daniel Molden, an assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern. "If someone's made a poor investment decision, you shouldn't praise them for their financial analysis."

It's not hard to find real-life illustrations of the dangers of escalation of commitment. Brian Hunter's spectacular crash-and-burn at the hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC is a prime example: The Calgary trader bet that the price of natural gas would rise; he stuck to his guns despite falling prices, and ended up losing about $6-billion.

Almost everyone falls into the trap occasionally, though thankfully our mistakes usually cost less than Mr. Hunter's did.

When the marketing director increases spending on the "Yo, our product is the bomb, dude" advertising campaign that he believes will revive sales in the youth market despite all evidence to the contrary, that's escalation of commitment.

When a supervisor continues to promote and groom an underperforming employee who clearly (to everyone else) is not working out, that's escalation of commitment.

When you've waited 25 minutes for a late bus and you decide to keep waiting instead of walking or taking a cab because, hey, you've already invested all this time - it's escalation of commitment.

"It leads to a lot of wasted resources and wasted effort," Dr. Molden said. "It's personally threatening to make a decision that doesn't go right."

If you want to help someone break out of the commitment-escalation trap, Dr. Molden said, it's safer to stick to more general praise. Sometimes, vagueness is fine. Focus on building up the employee's global self-esteem - "You're a great worker," "You're an important person to this company," "Your hair looks magnificent" - rather than targeting your praise to vulnerable areas.

Managers, take note: The answer is not to eschew praise altogether. A healthy sense of self-worth is still a good thing in employees.

"As a manager, you probably don't want to go around stepping on people's self-esteem," Prof. Sivanathan said. "That could lead to larger problems."

Ego boosting 101

Praising people is usually a good thing. But sometimes it can backfire, prompting a defensive employee to compound his or her error. Here's how to pat someone on the back with minimal risk:

Don't draw attention to his vulnerability. If an otherwise smart investor makes a bad call, you might be tempted to say something like, "Don't worry, you make great financial decisions. Don't let this get you down." But those words of praise can have the opposite effect, subtly reminding the person that he is indeed being judged on his financial acumen.

Redirect your praise: If someone makes a bad financial decision, compliment her creativity or her management skills: "The way you negotiated a solution to that sales problem was brilliant." Boosting her ego in other areas will make it easier for her to correct her mistakes.

When in doubt, keep it vague. A reassuring "You're doing a great job" or "We really appreciate all your hard work" is always a safe bet.

Rebecca Dube