Establishing the moderating and mediating roles of religiosity and demographic characteristics on the influence of secular morality on corruptibility of undergraduate students

This study sought to explore the influence of secular morality (SM) on corruption susceptibility among university students, examining the moderating roles of religiosity and demographic characteristics. Through a simple random sampling technique, 313 students in a university were recruited for data collection. The partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the data. The results of the study indicated that although secular morality was not significantly associated with moral corruption, it was positively associated with academic dishonesty and social corruption. Further, results indicate that religious principles reduced academic dishonesty but increased moral corruption. Also, religious activities were found to be a significant positive predictor of academic dishonesty and social corruption. The findings further demonstrate that religion partially moderated the theoretical association between secular morality and corruptibility. The sex and educational level of students were also found to be significant moderators of the hypothesised relationship, while age and religious affiliation had a minimal effect. Based on these findings, the paper offers recommendations for policy considerations.