Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
想到什么工作？关于学科领域的刻板印象
What Jobs Come to Mind? Stereotypes About Fields of Study
摘要
We test for stereotyping—the exaggeration of representative traits—in a high-stakes economic environment. Using both surveys administered among undergraduates at the Ohio State University and large-scale nationally representative data, we measure how US freshmen perceive the relationship between college majors and occupations. We show that students greatly overestimate the likelihood that majors lead to their representative jobs (e.g., counselor for psychology, journalist for journalism). Using an implicit association test, we show that students associate majors with their representative careers and that these associations strongly predict belief biases, in line with a stereotyping mechanism. A simple equilibrium model of the labor market predicts that stereotyping reduces welfare by increasing misallocation, which correlational evidence on job/major mismatch corroborates. In a field experiment, we test a light-touch policy to reduce stereotyping and find significant effects on students’ intentions about what to study as well as the classes and majors they enroll in.
中文摘要
摘要 我们检验了高 stakes 经济环境中的刻板印象——即对代表性特征的夸大。通过俄亥俄州立大学本科生调查及大规模全国代表性数据，我们测量了美国新生对大学专业与职业之间关系的认知。研究表明，学生极大高估了专业导向其代表性职业的可能性（例如心理学专业对应咨询师、新闻学专业对应记者）。通过内隐联想测试，我们发现学生将专业与其代表性职业相关联，且这些关联强烈预测信念偏差，这与刻板印象机制一致。一个简单的劳动力市场均衡模型预测，刻板印象通过加剧资源错配降低社会福利，而关于职业/专业错配的相关证据证实了这一点。在实地实验中，我们测试了一项轻触式政策以减少刻板印象，发现该政策对学生学习意向、所选课程及专业注册产生了显著影响。