Can’t Hear Bad News
I’ve long been puzzled with why students aren’t taught more about the consequences of choosing different careers, and why they don’t take more initiative to learn this for themselves. One clue: apparently students are only capable of hearing good news about future earnings. Maybe students don’t want to hear, and aren’t told, out of an urge to avoid hearing bad news? Details:
[Of] undergraduate college students … we ask … (1) their self beliefs about their own expected earnings if they were to major in different fields and (2) their beliefs about the population distribution of earnings. After the initial round in which the baseline beliefs are elicited, we provide students with accurate information on the population characteristics and then re-elicit their self beliefs. …
Students in our sample, despite belonging to a very high ability group, have biased beliefs about the population distribution of earnings. … More experienced students – those in their second or third year – hav[e] relatively more accurate beliefs about population earnings. …
The effect of information is asymmetric: There is signifcant updating when the information is good news for the respondent, i.e., when the respondent is informed that population earnings are higher than her prior beliefs, and no significant updating in instances where the respondent is informed that the population earnings are lower than her prior beliefs. … Relative to freshmen, experienced students are more likely to be non-updaters and less likely to react excessively to information. …
The information on earnings we provide causes nearly half of the students to revise their beliefs about graduating with the different majors. (more)
I’ve long been puzzled with why students aren’t taught more about the consequences of choosing different careers, and why they don’t take more initiative to learn this for themselves.
I'm actually writing an essay on why to become a nurse instead of a doctor because, after dating a doctor who bitterly regrets never learning what being a doctor actually entails and how much nurses can make, I've realized that people should have some idea of the mistake they're often making when they let their 21- or 22-year-old self make binding decisions that affect the self they'll be more than a decade later.
I don't remember if it was here or somewhere else where I read that asking professionals about their work is a very cheap way to get a realistic view of the profession before getting a degree.
I don't think this is only restricted to student and future earnings. When I buy on Amazon, I tend to check the best and worst reviews first, and the distribution. When I was new to Amazon, I usually only checked the most recommended one which was the most positive. Same thing with IMDB. Although most IMDB reviews are just noise.
I wouldn't be surprised if customers generally don't want to read bad news about some products. Like if you are buying a car, you want to feel good about it. You don't want to read information about people dying in that car. This is kind of a product affiliation.