A new study published in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association provides the strongest evidence to date that studying philosophy measurably improves students’ thinking skills. Using data from 649,511 students at over 800 U.S. institutions, researchers found that philosophy majors consistently outperformed peers on verbal and logical reasoning tests, such as the GRE and LSAT, ranking first among all disciplines. While this specific conclusion has already been established, this study took into count the SAT scores of those considered, allowing them to separate pre-learned skills and high test-scorers in high school, and instead gauge the effect philosophy has afterwards on students at similar levels. They found that with this considered, philosophy majors still performed two points higher on the LSAT than that of non-philosophy majors, as well as that senior philosophy majors reported, "greater levels of positive intellectual dispositions than their peers—encompassing curiosity, intellectual rigor, intellectual humility, and open-mindedness."