Daniel Kahneman, in his book thinking fast and slow, has a really good insight on why people in bad situations keep taking bad choices.

Google "The fourfold pattern". Basically, he states that there's a cognitive bias where people in situations where a poor outcome is likely to happen, tend to risk too much, and not settle for a bad (but better) outcome that what they already have.

If they kept compounding these "bad but better choices", they might have a chance.