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Did you believe in ghosts when you were a child? If you did, you probably still do, according to a new study.

Childhood beliefs about the soul and afterlife influences what beliefs in adulthood, regardless of what people say they believe in now.

Researchers at Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences asked 348 undergraduate students to talk about their 10-year-old and current beliefs about the soul and afterlife. The study revealed that most students were likely to report believing now in what they remembered believing at age 10.

Lead researcher Stephanie Anglin, a doctoral student in psychology in Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences, said there were no differences between religious and non-religious participants.

"That suggests that implicit beliefs are equally strong among religious and non-religious people," Anglin said.

"It would be really useful to have a longitudinal study examining the same ideas," Anglin concluded. "That is, study a group of people over time, from childhood through adulthood, and examine their beliefs about the soul and afterlife as they develop."

The latest study, "On the Nature of Implicit Soul Beliefs: When the Past Weighs More Than the Present," was published in latest issue of the British Journal of Social Psychology.