"Major" Implications: The Impact of College Major as a Peripheral Cue on Decision Making

Abstract

Peripheral cues can greatly impact decision making in a wide variety of domains. This thesis explores the effect of the association of college major as a peripheral cue on decision making related to a hypothetical scenario about college graduation. The hypothesis was that participants would show a subconscious preference for entities peripherally associated with their own major over entities peripherally associated with a different major. The results, in large part, do not confirm this hypothesis. Instead, they suggest that it not just the cued association that matters for subsequent decision making but rather the positivity (or negativity) of the association. This notion is explored, including a discussion of an informal follow-up study that was conducted. Future areas of research are discussed as well as the implications suggested by the current study’s findings.