title: Overconfidence and Career Choice.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jonathan F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.affiliation: University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thöni
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002321:Career Choice; D003132:Commerce; D004738:Engineering; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006809:Humanities; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D010811:Natural Science Disciplines; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013557:Switzerland; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult