How does stereotypic thinking affect the choice of major for undergraduate business students?

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Using a large survey of undergraduate business students, we identify common stereotypes, analyze gender differences in stereotypic thinking, and examine how stereotypes impact a student’s choice of major. We document gender differences in stereotypic thinking and find that stereotypes can introduce biases on students’ attitudes toward our study’s major of interest, finance. While we focus on finance stereotypes for tractability, our results have more general implications for understanding how students discern business majors using limited information sets. We conclude by suggesting ideas to mitigate stereotypic thinking and help students to better discern majors.