Philosophy Majors Beat Every Other Major On Critical Thinking Tests

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — College students who major in philosophy consistently outperform their peers on reasoning and logic tests, and new research provides the strongest evidence yet that it’s not simply because smart students choose philosophy in the first place.

A study tracking more than half a million college students across more than 800 American universities has answered a question that has puzzled educators for decades: Does studying philosophy actually make people better critical thinkers, or do philosophy departments just attract students who were already excellent at reasoning?

The answer is both, but philosophy education provides a significant boost on top of students’ natural abilities.

“Short of a randomized experiment — which for various ethical and practical reasons is unlikely ever to take place — these findings arguably constitute the clearest and strongest kind of empirical support that we will find for the claim that studying philosophy makes students better thinkers,” write researchers Michael Prinzing from Wake Forest University and Michael Vazquez from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Why Philosophy Students Outperform All Other Majors

The study represents the largest investigation ever conducted into philosophy’s effects on thinking skills. Philosophy majors ranked first among all academic disciplines on verbal reasoning tests, first on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and first on measures of intellectual habits such as curiosity and rigorous thinking. They also placed sixth on a measure of open-mindedness and 30th on mathematical reasoning.

For decades, philosophy departments have highlighted their students’ strong performance on exams like the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and LSAT. But skeptics argued this could simply reflect the types of students drawn to abstract thinking about ethics, logic, and metaphysics — people who might naturally possess stronger verbal and reasoning abilities before ever taking a philosophy class.

Previous research supported this concern. When the study authors tested students in their very first week of an introductory philosophy course, those students already scored “dramatically higher than the population average” on tests of reflective thinking, despite having barely begun their philosophical education.

How Researchers Separated Natural Ability from Education Effects

To address this “chicken or egg” problem, Prinzing and Vazquez compared how students performed when they entered college versus when they graduated, adjusting for differences in ability at the start.

The idea is simple: if philosophy students only looked better because they were already stronger thinkers, then accounting for those initial advantages should make them look ordinary. But if philosophy education itself provides benefits, philosophy majors should continue outperforming their peers even after those adjustments.

The researchers analyzed data from the Higher Education Research Institute spanning 1990 to 2019, covering 649,511 undergraduate students at 804 colleges and universities nationwide. The dataset included students’ SAT scores when entering college, their GRE or LSAT scores upon graduation, and surveys measuring traits like curiosity and open-mindedness.

Students with stronger verbal abilities and greater intellectual curiosity were indeed more likely to major in philosophy, confirming that self-selection plays a role. A one standard deviation increase in SAT verbal scores corresponded to 57% greater odds of choosing philosophy as a major.

But even after adjusting for these baseline differences, philosophy majors still significantly outperformed students in other disciplines.

What the Test Results Show About Philosophy Education

On the GRE verbal reasoning section (then scored on an 800-point scale), philosophy majors averaged 573 compared to 540 for non-philosophy majors, a 33-point advantage even after accounting for incoming SAT scores.

On the LSAT, philosophy majors averaged 157 while other students averaged 155, about a two-point advantage on the 120–180 scale. The researchers describe this as a “small to medium-sized” effect, but it was consistent even after controlling for students’ baseline abilities.

Philosophy majors also reported stronger intellectual habits during their senior year — such as curiosity, intellectual rigor, and open-mindedness — than non-philosophy majors, even after accounting for differences measured at the freshman year baseline.

When researchers ranked all 57 academic majors (with at least 200 students each) on five different measures, philosophy claimed the top spot on three: GRE verbal, LSAT, and intellectual habits. On open-mindedness, philosophy ranked sixth. On GRE quantitative reasoning, philosophy ranked 30th.

Mathematics and statistics majors dominated quantitative reasoning, but for skills involving language, logic, and habits of critical thought, philosophy was unmatched.

The study also carries implications for democratic society. Political philosophers have long argued that citizens need strong critical thinking skills and intellectual humility to participate effectively in democratic governance. Philosophy majors scored particularly well on measures designed to assess “skills and dispositions appropriate for living and working in a diverse society.”

At a practical level, these results could help philosophy departments defend their programs during an era when universities increasingly prioritize fields with obvious economic applications. Philosophy enrollments have declined in recent years as students gravitate toward majors perceived as more career-focused.

The study has important limitations. Because researchers couldn’t randomly assign students to different majors, they can’t definitively prove that philosophy education caused the improvements. Despite sophisticated statistical controls, unmeasured factors could still explain the differences.

Still, the research delivers the strongest evidence so far that philosophy education enhances thinking abilities beyond what students bring to the classroom. In a world increasingly dominated by specialized technical training, philosophy appears to develop precisely the kind of broad critical thinking skills that remain valuable across careers and contexts.

Disclaimer: This study shows strong associations between studying philosophy and gains in reasoning and intellectual habits, but it does not establish causation. Students were not randomly assigned to majors, so unmeasured factors could still explain some differences. The results apply specifically to standardized test scores and self-reported intellectual traits, not necessarily to all real-world thinking skills.