Predictable Politics: Whether undergraduate students’ college majors relate to their sociopolitical views at Olivet Nazarene University

By means of a campus-wide survey of current undergraduate ONU students, this correlational study (N = 1,277) determines the relationship between students’ chosen college major and their sociopolitical orientation. An online survey distributed in September 2016 collected information about students’ attitudes on various key issues, and the resulting data was analyzed in order to uncover patterns of sociopolitical orientation within specific groups of college majors. The results supported a statistically significant correlation between participants’ academic disciplines and sociopolitical views, even if the correlation was not very strong. These findings were assessed through the self-selection and socialization hypotheses as models for understanding the development of common sociopolitical ideas in groups of individuals who are pursuing similar career paths