International Journal of Adolescence and Youth (Dec 2020)

Are millennial students better equipped to overcome choice bias?

  • Ran Etgar,
  • Emanuel Tamir

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1657026
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 1
pp. 373 – 381

Abstract

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Although choosing between several alternatives is the basic and most common process of decision-making, it has been well established that when having to decide, people are prone to various biases and seldom elect an alternative rationally. One of the most common and well-researched biases is the ‘choice-bias’ and many researches demonstrated its effect on decision-makers (both high-level and daily decisions) of the previous generations. This research examined the hypothesis that since the psychological development of ‘generation Y’ differs significantly from the researched generations, youth today are more resistant to this specific bias. A lifetime of constant exposure to the overabundance of suggestions and opportunities may have influenced decision-making capabilities. A study conducted on two separate groups of students (256 participants) revealed that no choice bias was observed, unlike similar studies conducted with previous generation populations.

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