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

• Disgust is associated with a self-protective response.
• The self-protective response of disgust increases self-interested, unethical behavior.
• Cleansing can decrease impact of disgust on 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 own welfare, 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.