Economics Classes May Make You More Conservative

Did you take an economics course in college? If so, you may have been swayed, either slightly or considerably, to side with the Republican Party from a fiscal standpoint.
According to a new study by the Federal Reserve’s Bank Of New York, students taking economics classes were less likely to favor “regulation or government intervention affecting prices for specific goods and services, including wages and salaries.”
In addition, the authors found that those who chose to take several economics classes were “more likely to agree that tariffs reduce economic welfare and less likely to think that trade deficits adversely affect the economy.”
But it’s not just economics that may be changing the way you think; your whole college education influences what you think about public behavior, including party affiliation, political donations and volunteerism.
The study also found that business majors are less politically involved than that of economics majors. Business majors, who are separate from economics majors, are less likely than non-business majors to volunteer for a political cause or to have voted in the 2000 presidential election.
While the study authors admit that students who choose to study economics may already lean to the right, they found that the ideas of economics courses are strongly connected to those of the Republican Party.
The authors surveyed 2,000 graduates from large public universities located in Indiana, North Carolina, Nebraska and Florida. The data was compiled during the years 1976, 1986 and 1996.
Via The Huffington Post