We consider the relationship between disgust and ethical behavior. Winterich, Mittal, and Morales report several experiments finding that disgust increases unethical behavior. We replicated three of their studies, using high-powered designs with a total of 1,239 participants, three different procedures to induce disgust, and three different measures of unethical behavior. We observe no effect of disgust on unethical behavior in any of the studies, supporting the contention that disgust has no effect on ethical decision making.
AyalS.GinoF. (2011). Honest rationales for dishonest behavior. In MikulincerM.ShaverP. R. (Eds.), The social psychology of morality: Exploring the causes of good and evil. American Psychological Association, 149–166.
3.
BrandtM. J.IJzermanH.DijksterhuisA.FarachF. J.GellerJ.Giner-SorollaR.GrangefJ. A.PeruginigM.SpiesJ. R.Van’t VeerA. (2014). The replication recipe: What makes for a convincing replication?Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 217–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.10.005
4.
ChapmanH. A.KimD. A.SusskindJ. M.AndersonA. K. (2009). In bad taste: Evidence for the oral origins of moral disgust. Science, 323, 1222–1226.
5.
CohenJ. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the social sciences. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
6.
De DreuC. K. W.NautaA. (2009). Self-interest and other-orientation in organizational behavior: Implications for job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative. .Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 913–926. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014494
7.
DennyB. T.KoberH.WagerT. D.OchsnerK. N. (2012). A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of self-and other judgments reveals a spatial gradient for mentalizing in medial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 1742–1752. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00233
8.
EskineK. J.KacinikN. A.PrinzJ. J. (2011). A bad taste in the mouth: Gustatory disgust influences moral judgment. Psychological Science, 22, 295–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611398497
9.
FischbacherU.Foellmi-HeusiF. (2013). Lies in disguise: An experimental study on cheating. Journal of the European Economic Association, 11, 525–547. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeea.12014
10.
GasparJ. P.SchweitzerM. E. (2013). The emotion deception model: A review of deception in negotiation and the role of emotion in deception. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 6, 160–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/ncmr.12010
11.
GneezyU. (2005). Deception: The role of consequences. American Economic Review, 95, 384–394.
HaidtJ.KollerS. H.DiasM. G. (1993). Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 613–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.613
14.
HorbergE. J.OveisC.KeltnerD.CohenA. B. (2009). Disgust and the moralization of purity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 963–976. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017423
15.
HutchersonC. A.Montaser-KouhsariL.WoodwardJ.RangelA. (2015). Emotional and utilitarian appraisals of moral dilemmas are encoded in separate areas and integrated in ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 35, 12593–12605. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3402-14.2015
16.
JiangT. (2013). Cheating in mind games: The subtlety of rules matters. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 93, 328–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2013.04.003
JohnsonD. J.WortmanJ.CheungF.HeinM.LucasR. E.DonnellanM. B.EbersoleC. R.NarrR. K. (2016). The effects of disgust on moral judgments: Testing moderators. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 640–647. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616654211
19.
JonesT. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16, 366–395. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1991.4278958
20.
KouchakiM.DesaiS. D. (2015). Anxious, threatened, and also unethical: How anxiety makes individuals feel threatened and commit unethical acts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 360–375. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037796
21.
KuglerT.YeB.MotroD.NoussairC. N. (2020). On trust and disgust: Evidence from face reading and virtual reality. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619856302
22.
LandyJ. F.GoodwinG. P. (2015). Does incidental disgust amplify moral judgment? A meta-analytic review of experimental evidence. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 518–536. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615583128
23.
LimJ.HoP.Mullette-GillmanO. (2015). Modulation of incentivized dishonesty by disgust facial expressions. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 9, 250. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2015.00250
24.
LimV. K. (2002). The IT way of loafing on the job: Cyberloafing, neutralizing and organizational justice. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 675–694. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.161
25.
MotroD.OrdóñezL. D.PittarelloA.WelshD. T. (2016). Investigating the effects of anger and guilt on unethical behavior: A dual-process approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 152, 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3337-x
26.
MullenE.NadlerJ. (2008). Moral spillovers: The effect of moral violations on deviant behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1239–1245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.001
OngH. H.Mullette-GillmanO. A.KwokK.LimJ. (2014). Moral judgment modulation by disgust is bi-directionally moderated by individual sensitivity. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 194. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00194
29.
PerloffL. S.FetzerB. K. (1986). Self–other judgments and perceived vulnerability to victimization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 502–510. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.3.502
30.
PreacherK. J.HayesA. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 717–731. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206553
RozinP.HaidtJ.McCauleyC. R. (1999). Disgust: The body and soul emotion. In DalgleishT. (Ed.), Handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 429–445). John Wiley.
33.
RozinP.HaidtJ.McCauleyC. R. (2008). Disgust. In LewisM.Haviland-JonesJ. M.BarrettL. F. (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (3rd ed., pp. 757–776). Guilford.
34.
SanfeyA. G.RillingJ. K.AronsonJ. A.NystromL. E.CohenJ. D. (2003). The neural basis of economic decision-making in the ultimatum game. Science, 300, 1755–1758.
35.
SchnallS.HaidtJ.CloreG.JordanA. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771
36.
SchwarzN.StrackF. (2014). Does merely going through the same moves make for a “direct” replication? Concepts, contexts, and operationalizations. Social Psychology, 45, 305–306.
37.
SimonsohnU. (2015). Small telescopes: Detectability and the evaluation of replication results. .Psychological Science, 26, 559–569. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614567341
38.
UgazioG.LammC.SingerT. (2012). The role of emotions for moral judgments depends on the type of emotion and moral scenario. Emotion, 12, 579–590. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024611
39.
VicarioC. M. (2016). Emotional appraisal of moral dilemmas: What neuroimaging can tell about the disgust–morality link. Journal of Neuroscience, 36, 263–264. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3483-15.2016
WinterichK. P.MittalV.MoralesA. C. (2014). Protect thyself: How affective self-protection increases self-interested, unethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 125, 151–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.07.00
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
