About a year ago, an undergraduate at Notre Dame University named Anna Bohlen reached out to ask whether she could work with this newsletter. After a few emails and a Zoom meeting, the two agreed on a plan: Anna would apply for small grants at Notre Dame and, if successful, they would field a survey together and write up the results. Anna won one of the awards, and the project went ahead. The project was supported in part by a Sorin Fellows Program grant administered through the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame. The survey was fielded through Qualtrics in August 2025 and collected a total sample of 557 respondents.
The discussion centered on self-improvement, which young people often call "maxxing." Some young men pursue "jaw-maxxing" through facial exercises for a more defined jawline, while others pursue "sleep-maxxing," tracking their sleep patterns to gain a few more minutes of rest. The authors noted that the typical American is always looking for ways to improve their lives. To explore this in a more philosophical way, the questionnaire asked respondents how close they felt to being the kind of person they ought to be, morally speaking.
The results showed a distinct age effect. Among the youngest adults, 38% said they were "very far" or "somewhat far" from being the person they ought to be morally, and almost none felt "already there." Among those 55 or older, just 6% said "very far" and 8% said "somewhat far," while about half said they were "pretty close" or "already there." Older respondents were also about 11 percentage points more likely than younger adults to say they tried every day to improve their character.
The authors suggested a possible explanation: people who have spent decades consciously working on their character may feel closer to the person they want to be. Trying harder and feeling more arrived can go together, meaning that years of effort may translate into a perception of moral progress.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing