It is placement season at most business schools. And if you are an MBA student, you will most likely face the following dilemma: Should I shift my career and pursue the area that I like, but accept a low-paying job, or should I look for a high-paying job in my area of expertise? It is, indeed, a difficult choice to make. But it turns out that behavioural psychology can help with your decision. How?
Suppose you buy the latest smartphone for a fancy price. You will no doubt feel happy with your prized possession. But your happiness will be at best short-lived. After a while, your prized possession will become just another phone that helps you strike business deals or stay connected with family and friends. Why?
Blame it on your dopamine neurons. Dopamine is a naturally-producing chemical in your brain that activates your brain’s pleasure centre. You typically feel a dopamine surge when you receive a reward, especially when it is a surprise. Experiencing your smartphone for the first time releases dopamine in your brain, which causes the excitement. But your dopamine production reduces, as your brain gets used to the smartphone- no surprises there!
Why do we indulge in buying products that we think will make us happy? Because we engage in affective forecasting i.e. predicting our affect or emotional state in the future. The problem is that we typically overestimate our future emotional state, whether it is happiness or sadness.
Besides, we typically do not learn from the past errors in our affective forecasting. Why? Researchers have shown through various experiments that we tend to forget how we forecast our happiness or sadness. That is, in the case of the smartphone, once your brain becomes used to the gadget, you tend to forget the fact that you overestimated your future happiness of owning the phone at the time of purchase. Your inability to recollect your overestimation is the reason you continue to commit affective forecasting errors.
This brings us back to your placement dilemma. If behavioural psychologists are correct, you are most likely overestimating your state of mind in the future- whether it is the happiness you think you will derive from a job that you like or the sadness you think you will feel due to your inability to shift your career. So, what should you do? Try your best for a career shift. If you do not succeed, go back to your area of expertise. Either way, your long-term happiness may not be significantly affected- at least not the way you think it will be!
(The author is the founder of Navera Consulting. Feedback may be sent to knowledge@thehindu.co.in)