The Effects of Message Framing on College Students' Career Decision Making

Social cognitive career theory posits that verbal persuasion can affect individuals' career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals and/or intentions, and behaviors. Prospect theory holds that negatively framed messages can have a powerful effect on people's cognitions related to adopting particular behaviors in situations of uncertainty. Drawing from these two theories, this study explored the effect that persuasive messages have on college students' career decision-making cognitions and behaviors. Results indicated that written persuasive messages enhanced college students' career decision-making outcome expectations, intentions, and behaviors. How the message was framed (whether gain or loss framed) did not differentially affect students' career cognitions, yet students in the loss-framed condition engaged in more career-related behaviors in the week following the message than students in the gain-framed condition.