The unintended detrimental effects of pursuing a professional vocation: The case of veterinarians. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Pursuing one's life calling can be personally fulfilling and professionally rewarding, but it also requires sacrifice. We provide evidence of a strong vocational drive using veterinary students as a case study and find that they willingly contribute higher monetary donations for helping animals relative to students in other fields. We also find a significant reduction in the cognitive performance of veterinarian students when exposed to an animal-in-need manipulation. The performance of non-veterinary students in the cognitive task is unaffected by the manipulation. Our results highlight the need for programs to address the economic, financial, and mental health well-being of students and professionals to promote sustainable vocational career commitment. "You owe it to all of us to get on with what you're good at." W.H. Auden.

published proceedings

  • PLoS One

author list (cited authors)

  • Palma, M. A., Zhang, P., Cornell, K., Salois, M., Bain, B., & Neill, C.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Palma, Marco A||Zhang, Peilu||Cornell, Karen||Salois, Matthew||Bain, Bridget||Neill, Clinton

editor list (cited editors)

  • Garcia-Segarra, J.

publication date

  • January 2023