Bounded Rationality in Career Choices
How Cognitive Biases Appear in Adolescent Career Exploration
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21581602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ghassani Swaryandini (0000-0003-4362-8650, The University of Queensland, corresponding author), Geetanjali Basarkod (0000-0003-3708-2751, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University), Clarence Ng (0000-0003-2976-1762, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia), Peter Parker (0000-0002-4604-8566, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University), Jason M Tangen (0000-0002-0649-2566, The University of Queensland), Jason Tangen (The University of Queensland), Michael Noetel (0000-0002-6563-8203, The University of Queensland) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 396-414 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Career Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0894-8453 • E-ISSN: 1556-0856 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/08948453261444268 |
| OpenAlex | W7155601046 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 43 |
Adolescents face high-stakes career decisions under uncertainty. Yet, while bounded rationality research has established that cognitive biases can systematically distort human judgement and decision-making, we know little about how these biases appear in adolescent career exploration. This pragmatic, mixed-methods study investigated how cognitive biases appear in career decision-making among 21 Australian high school students aged 15–18. Students participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their career decision-making approaches, followed by a quantitative survey assessing bias tendencies. Content analysis revealed several cognitive bias patterns: confirmation bias appeared as selective information seeking, availability bias emerged as choosing familiar careers, and varying levels of confidence and sunk-cost fallacy were observed. These findings highlight how biased thinking patterns can appear in adolescent career choices while acknowledging their potential benefits and limitations. Schools may benefit from incorporating bias-awareness activities into career education programs and teaching structured decision-making frameworks
Bounded rationality · Cognition · Cognitive bias · Confirmation bias · Fallacy · Judgement · Overconfidence effect · Rationality · Response bias · Career Development and Diversity · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Higher Education and Employability
Decision-making in the adolescent brain
The Psychology of Working Theory.
A Simple Model of Herd Behavior
Bounded Rationality
A literature review of the anchoring effect
Circumscription and compromise
A Systematic Review of Factors That Influence Youths Career Choices—the Role of Culture
Flawed Self-Assessment
The qualitative content analysis process
Confirmation Bias
Career decision-making in an uncertain world
Career decision making, fast and slow
Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action
Systematic review and meta-analysis of educational approaches to reduce cognitive biases among students
Emerging Between Two Worlds
Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research
Resistance to cognitive biases
Work transitions
Conditions for intuitive expertise
Natural Language Processing Enhanced Qualitative Methods
The Happenstance Learning Theory
Heuristic Decision Making
| Highly cited | No |
|---|