The importance of moral fit to expectations of academic and professional wellbeing

Ongis, Martino; Kidd, David

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1433194

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Educational Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1433194

The importance of moral fit to expectations of academic and professional wellbeing

Provisionally accepted

Martino Ongis ^1*

David Kidd ²

¹ Franklin University Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland
² Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

What impact does moral fit have on expectations and engagement in higher education? We conducted two studies conducted with college and university students in the U.S. In Study 1 (N = 151), we manipulated the moral fit of a hypothetical student, assessing its impact on anticipated academic, social, and professional outcomes. Study 2 (N = 201) involved manipulating moral values within a course description to investigate whether alignment with participants’ values influenced their interest in the course and expected outcomes. Both studies demonstrate that students are aware of moral fit in higher education, associating it with more positive expectations.

Keywords: Moral fit, Value congruence, Wellbeeing, Academic expectations, Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), Ideological diversity

Received: 15 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ongis and Kidd. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Martino Ongis, Franklin University Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland

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