Unrealistic optimism in career decision-making:

Unrealistic optimism provides both enormous benefits to society, as well as it provides great challenges. In past research, it is shown that students are often unrealistically optimistic about future career-related events. Unrealistic optimism has significant negative financial consequences on a personal level and on a society level. This research has attempted to demonstrate this degree of unrealistic optimism for a very specific group: journalism students (n=96). Furthermore, it is tested whether providing students with information about the highly challenging labour market situation for journalists the treatment group (n=50) helps in reducing unrealistic optimism. The results have shown that students are indeed unrealistically optimistic about future career-related events. Then, a gender difference is measured with respect to the impact of the information intervention: the degree of unrealistic optimism with male students in the treatment group is significantly, positively impacted by the intervention, whereas female students aren’t impacted at all. The first result fits the hypothesis, but the second result is somewhat surprising. A number of possible explanations for these results and corresponding policy recommendations will be outlined in the conclusion of this study.