Students of the humanities, like those of the “pure sciences”, tend to have “more sophisticated and less closed views of knowledge than do students in engineeri

Students of the humanities, like those of the “pure sciences”, tend to have “more sophisticated and less closed views of knowledge than do students in engineering . . . Scientists learn to ask questions, while engineering students, like followers of text-based religions, rely more strongly on answers that have already been given”. Engineering students from all backgrounds, they suggest, share a more rigid outlook than students of science and humanities. Intolerant of ambiguity, they show a preference for authoritarian systems and have more simplistic views about how the status quo can be changed. Far from them being more “religious” than other Muslims, it seems that it is the Islamist vision of a “corporatist, mechanistic and hierarchical” social order, combined with “well-regulated daily routines” that attracts them, and accounts for their over-representation.