Choosing a major is arguably the most important decision students make during their four years of college. Now, however, it appears that your decision to study English instead of biology may affect more than the job you get and your salary after graduation — it may in fact change your very beliefs.

According to a recent study by the University of Michigan, certain majors may influence students into becoming more or less religious. The study, which began in 1975, assessed students before, during and after their college experiences, looking closely at the students’ level of religiousness at these times and their chosen fields of study.

The study found that although highly religious students tend to choose humanities majors, the humanities and social sciences have statistically negative effects on a student’s religious attendance and the overall importance of religion in a student’s life. Accordingly, the study revealed humanities majors as the group least likely to donate money to their church later in life.

Students who chose to study the physical sciences were, on average, more religious than students who chose to study the humanities or social sciences.

The major that appeared to be most positively correlated with a high level of religiousness was education. Many religious students chose education as their major and became more religious during the pursuit of their degree and after graduation.

Eric Dietrich, a philosophy professor at Binghamton University specializing in topics such as religion and the philosophy of the mind, says that although these results may seem surprising, they are actually easily explained.

“Science majors don’t just wake up one day and decide to major in science; they’ve liked science all their lives,” Dietrich said. “So, if they’re religious, they’ve long since learned to reconcile their religious beliefs with their scientific world view. They don’t usually like the big, ambiguous, difficult, some would say ‘fluffy’ questions about ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ and ‘What is life all about?’”

Humanities majors, Dietrich added, are often drawn to these types of questions in their majors, and thus are more likely to experience some gradual change in their belief systems.

“As one ponders these big questions, the mists begin to clear, somewhat, and new answers emerge,” Dietrich said.

Eve Rickles-Young, a junior art history and French double major, said that while she did in fact become more religious in college, she doesn’t think her major had anything to do with it. However, she does think the findings are a bit surprising.

“I think that that’s interesting because you would think it would be the opposite,” Rickles-Young said. “It seems that a lot of times science and religion clash, so you would think science majors would turn away from religion, not to say you can’t believe in science and be religious at the same time.”

However, it could be that changes in religious feeling have less to do with college major, and more to do with age. As young adults, college students are being exposed to different people and world views and growing through their experiences.

“Just learning that other people conceive of the world quite differently from you is enough, often, to start a landslide of good, critical thinking about one’s own assumptions and values,” Dietrich explained. “Part of this is just the virtue of youth: as one’s world expands, old assumptions get questioned.”

“College, especially, should be about growth,” Dietrich said, “and it is impossible to grow without changing.”