Bounded Rationality in Career Choices: Cognitive Biases and Their Influence on Adolescent Career Exploration

This mixed-methods study investigated whether and how cognitive biases influence career decision-making processes among Australian high school students. Twenty-one students aged 16-18 participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their career decision-making approaches, followed by a quantitative survey assessing bias tendencies. Content analysis revealed that several cognitive biases could influence adolescents’ career decisions–confirmation bias appeared as selective information seeking, availability bias led to career choices based on familiar examples, and varying levels of confidence calibration and sunk-cost fallacy were observed. Social biases such as stereotyping and groupthink could also shape the participants’ career choices. For instance, students influenced by availability bias often limited their career choices to professions well-known in their immediate environment (“Most of my friends are Asian, so they all went for the medical route. I guess it's influenced by their family mostly rather than their own decision” - Participant 15, aspiring nurse). These findings highlight the role of biases in adolescent career choices while acknowledging their potential benefits and limitations. Future research could explore longitudinal approaches to distinguish between helpful heuristics and limiting cognitive biases. Schools may benefit from incorporating bias-awareness activities into career education programs, encouraging students to explore diverse career options, and teaching structured decision-making frameworks that promote balanced information gathering.