Protect thyself: How affective self-protection increases self-interested, unethical behavior

In this research, we draw on the characteristics of disgust—an affective state that prompts a self-protection response—to demonstrate that experiencing disgust can also increase self-interested, unethical behaviors such as cheating. This series of studies contributes to the literature demonstrating context-specific effects on self-interested, unethical behavior. Specifically, we show that innocuous emotion-eliciting cues can elicit a focus on the protection of one’s ownwelfare, leading people to engage in self-interested behaviors that are unethical. This research provides evidence that the importance of clean physical environments may extend beyond visual beautification of surroundings to include economic behaviors. 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.