Majors in College Affect Religion

A new study shows that what a student majors in college affects his or her religion. For example, college students who major in humanities and social sciences are likely to become less religious and students who major in education are likely to become more religious.

Biology and physical science majors are religious neutral; their thoughts about religion remain the same as when they started college.

“Education majors are clearly safe havens for the religious,” said University of Michigan Economist Miles Kimball, who co-authored the study. “Highly religious people seem to prefer education majors, tend to stay in that major, and tend to become more religious by the time they graduate.”

The University of Michigan conducted the study, which was funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Roughly, 26,200 high-school graduates were analyzed from 1976 to 1996.

The questions they were asked were: How often do you attend religious services? How important is religion in your life? How good or bad a job is being done for the country as a whole by churches and religious organizations?

The researches used business majors as a reference point because most business courses do not teach values.

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