I recall reading, though I can't remember where, that physicists in some country were more likely to become extreme religious fanatics. This confused me, until the author suggested that physics students are presented with a received truth that is actually correct, from which they learn the habit of trusting authority.

You're probably thinking of the engineering (and hard sciences in general) correlation; see http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205920319 or http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/01/primary-sources/6559/2/ and the original paper, http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/users/gambetta/Engineers%20of%20Jihad.pdf