אינטואיציות של מתלבטים בבחירת תחום לימודים ומקצוע: האם כדאי להסתמך עליהן?

Many rely on intuition when making decisions. This study involved 412 individuals deliberating over their future profession who voluntarily used Comparing and Choosing (C&C), a free decision-support system on the Future Directions website. Participants listed the occupations they were considering and marked the occupation they deemed most intuitively suitable. The occupation identified as most suitable in C&C was compared to: (1) implicitintuition – the first occupation listed; (2) explicit intuition – the occupation marked as more suitable intuitively; (3)self-reported use of intuition, as assessed by the Career Decision-Making Profile questionnaire. C&C assigns each occupation an overall suitability score using a compensatory decision model that weights the advantages and shortcomings of the occupation, as perceived by the individual. The first-listed occupation received a higher suitability score than the second, supporting the informativeness of implicit intuition. 74% of participants hadan explicit intuitive choice; for 60% of them, that occupation also received the highest suitability score in C&C,underscoring the value of explicit intuition. Participants who reported higher use of intuition were more likely to select intuitively the occupation ranked highest in C&C. The challenges of incorporating intuitions into counseling are discussed.