Choice Architecture in Occupational Choices.

Autor/inn/en	Backes-Gellner, Uschi; u.a.
Institution	Universität Basel; Universität Zürich / Pädagogisches Institut
Titel	Choice Architecture in Occupational Choices.
Quelle	(2026), 36 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	Working Paper. 255
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monografie
Schlagwörter	Künstliche Intelligenz; Berufslaufbahn; Berufsberatung; Schweiz
Abstract	We study how choice architecture in online platforms shapes high-stakes occupational choices through two behavioral mechanisms: motivated reasoning and cognitive load. Using detailed process data from a large online job board and exploiting a quasiexperimental setting, we leverage two sources of exogenous variation in the presentation of occupation recommendations. First, we use random variation in the rank order of equally wellmatched occupations to study the effects of motivated reasoning. Our results show that rank order strongly increases the level of users' engagement on the platform and, consequently, the number of occupations to which they apply. Second, we exploit a redesign that transformed the occupation recommendations from a static, text-heavy list into an interactive and visually enriched presentation. The redesign was neither announced nor anticipated, which allows for causal interpretation. We find that this small redesign significantly increases the number of occupations to which users apply, supporting our hypothesis that it reduces cognitive load, leading to increased use of a watch list that keeps more occupations in jobseekers' memory. Our findings provide large-scale field evidence showing that even small changes in platform design significantly and strongly shape consequential career choices.
Erfasst von	Informations- und Dokumentationszentrum IDES, Bern
Update	2026/4