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Journal article

Overconfidence and Career Choice.

  • Schulz JF Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
  • Thöni C University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • 2016-01-26
Published in:
  • PloS one. - 2016
Attitude
Career Choice
Commerce
Engineering
Female
Games, Experimental
Humanities
Humans
Jurisprudence
Male
Natural Science Disciplines
Self-Assessment
Sex Factors
Students
Switzerland
Universities
Young Adult
English People self-assess their relative ability when making career choices. Thus, confidence in their own abilities is likely an important factor for selection into various career paths. In a sample of 711 first-year students we examine whether there are systematic differences in confidence levels across fields of study. We find that our experimental confidence measures significantly vary between fields of study: While students in business related academic disciplines (Political Science, Law, Economics, and Business Administration) exhibit the highest confidence levels, students of Humanities range at the other end of the scale. This may have important implications for subsequent earnings and professions students select themselves in.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/123088
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