The main aim of the present study was to investigate why some students do not continue in science-oriented studies in higher education despite that their previous career in secondary education proved that they were interested and suitably qualified to do so. We introduced a new approach to deal with these students' attitudes towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies. That is, the study was based on the multi-attribute utility theory, using an approach related to the theory of reasoned action. The study included 477 Dutch students that pursued a study in higher education (mostly second-and third-year students). All students had taken advanced mathematics, chemistry and physics courses in secondary education, but did not choose a STEM study in higher education. In 2008, a questionnaire was sent to them to measure their attitudes. The attitudes of these students towards STEM studies were compared with their attitudes towards their current (non-STEM) study, while also taking the influence of significant others (e.g. parents, teachers and peers) on these students' study choice into account. As expected, most non-STEM students had chosen the best "suitable" option as regards their attitudes. Nevertheless, 1 out of 10 non-STEM students had a more favourable attitude towards STEM studies than towards their current non-STEM study. However, the hypothesis that these students had left the STEM pipeline because of the advice of significant others was not confirmed.