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Disgusted or Happy, It is not so Bad: Emotional Mini-Max in Unethical Judgments

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Abstract

Although prior work on ethical decision-making has examined the direct impact of magnitude of consequences as well as the direct impact of emotions on ethical judgments, the current research examines the interaction of these two constructs. Building on previous research finding disgust to have a varying impact on ethical judgments depending on the specific behavior being evaluated, we investigate how disgust, as well as happiness and sadness, moderates the effect of magnitude of consequences on an individual’s judgments of another person’s unethical behavior. Specifically, we propose and find that because disgust and happiness are both associated with more heuristic-based processing, they both lead to a stronger reliance on the magnitude of consequences when forming ethical judgments. In contrast, because sad and neutral emotional states are associated with more systematic processing, they both result in a weaker reliance on the magnitude of consequences. As such, the effect of magnitude of consequences on judgments of unethical behaviors is stronger when individuals making the judgments are experiencing disgust or happiness versus sadness or a neutral state. This research shows that ethical judgment severity is contingent on individual-level factors, particularly the current emotional state being experienced by the individual, interacting with magnitude of consequences to impact the ethical decision-making process.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Rajan Sambandam and Christi Clark at TRC, Inc., Fort Washington, PA, for facilitating data collection through their online panel. Other studies for this project were collected in the behavioral research labs at Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University. We appreciate feedback from Ajay Kalra, William T. Ross, Linda Trevino, and Kathleen Vohs on earlier versions of this manuscript and assistance from Nivriti Chowdhry, Jihye Jung, and Tatianna Aker.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University, 449 Business Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Karen Page Winterich

  2. W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874106, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4106, USA

    Andrea C. Morales

  3. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Vikas Mittal

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  1. Karen Page Winterich
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  2. Andrea C. Morales
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  3. Vikas Mittal
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Correspondence to Karen Page Winterich.

Appendices

Appendix: Instructions for Emotion Induction in Studies 1A, 1B and 2

Neutral

Provide as much detail as you can and take your time, but you do not need to spend more than 2–4 min on this question.

Question 1: What are the 3–5 activities that you did today? Please write 2–3 sentences about each thing that you select. Examples of things you might write about include: getting ready in the morning, eating lunch, going to work, running errands, etc.

Now we’d like you to take a minute to think about the activities that typically occur in your evening and determine the way that you most typically spend your evening. Once you have carefully considered your typical evening, please continue to the next page.

You do not need to take more than 3–5 min to complete this question.

Question 2: Thinking about the way you typically spend your evening, please begin by writing down a description of your activities, and then figure out how much time you devoted to each activity. Examples of things you might describe include preparing dinner, eating dinner, spending time with family or friends, running errands, watching TV, etc.

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE WRITE YOUR DESCRIPTION SO THAT SOMEONE READING THIS MIGHT BE ABLE TO RECONSTRUCT THE WAY IN WHICH YOU, SPECIFICALLY, SPEND YOUR EVENINGS.

Disgust

Provide as much detail as you can and take your time, but you do not need to spend more than 2–4 min on this question.

Question 1: What are the 3–5 things that make you find most disgusting? Please write 2–3 sentences about each thing that makes you disgusted. Disgust often arises when you experience something very unpleasant with an aversive physical reaction to avoid the stimulus and perhaps even nausea. Examples of things you might write about include: using a dirty toilet, seeing a dead animal, eating spoiled food, etc.

Now we’d like you to take a minute to think about each of the situations described above and determine the one experience that has been the most disgusting experience of your life. Once you have carefully considered this situation, please continue to the next page.

You do not need to take more than 3–5 min to complete this question.

Question 2: Thinking about the one experience that has been the most disgusting in your life, please begin by writing down what you remember of the disgusting event, and continue by writing as detailed a description of the event as possible. You may want to close your eyes as you recall this memory so you can visualize how things looked, smelled, and/or tasted. Please try to imagine the event as vividly as possible and relive the feelings you experienced at the time of this event.

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE WRITE YOUR DESCRIPTION SO THAT SOMEONE READING THIS MIGHT FEEL PHYSICALLY DISGUSTED JUST FROM LEARNING ABOUT THE SITUATION.

What is it like to be in this situation? What did the situation look like? What smells or tastes were there? Why does it make you so disgusted?

Sadness

Provide as much detail as you can and take your time, but you do not need to spend more than 2–4 min on this question.

Question 1: What are the 3–5 things that make you the most unhappy? Please write 2–3 sentences about each thing that makes you unhappy. Unhappiness often arises when you experience something very unenjoyable or sad. Examples of things you might write about include: the loss of a loved one, devastation from natural disasters, learning of deplorable events on the news, being filled with grief from loss, etc.

Now we’d like you to take a minute to think about each of the situations described above and determine the one day that has been the unhappiest day of your life. Once you have carefully considered this situation, please continue to the next page.

You do not need to take more than 3–5 min to complete this question.

Question 2: Thinking about the one day that has been the unhappiest day of your life, please begin by writing down what you remember of the unhappy event(s), and continue by writing as detailed a description of the event(s) as possible. You may want to close your eyes as you recall this memory so you can visualize how you felt. Please try to imagine the event as vividly as possible and relive the feelings you experienced at the time of this event.

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE WRITE YOUR DESCRIPTION SO THAT SOMEONE READING THIS MIGHT FEEL UNHAPPY ON YOUR BEHALF JUST FROM LEARNING ABOUT THE SITUATION.

What is it like to be in this situation? Why does it make you so unhappy?

Happiness

Provide as much detail as you can and take your time, but you do not need to spend more than 2–4 min on this question.

Question 1: What are the 3–5 things that make you the happiest? Please write 2–3 sentences about each thing that makes you happy. Happiness often arises when you experience something you really enjoy or take pleasure in everyday events. Examples of things you might write about include: receiving a gift from a loved one unexpectedly, enjoying the sunshine on a beautiful day, spending time with your family or friends, reading a good book or playing a game you enjoy, etc.

Now we would like you to take a minute to think about each of the situations described above and determine the 1 day that has been the happiest day of your life. Once you have carefully considered this situation, please continue to the next page.

You do not need to take more than 3–5 min to complete this question.

Question 2: Thinking about the 1 day that has been the happiest day of your life, please begin by writing down what you remember of the happiness-inducing event(s), and continue by writing as detailed a description of the event(s) as possible. You may want to close your eyes as you recall this memory so you can visualize how you felt. Please try to imagine the event as vividly as possible and relive the feelings you experienced at the time of this event.

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE WRITE YOUR DESCRIPTION SO THAT SOMEONE READING THIS MIGHT FEEL HAPPY ON YOUR BEHALF JUST FROM LEARNING ABOUT THE SITUATION.

What is it like to be in this situation? Why does it make you so happy?

Unethical Behavior Scenarios for Studies 1A and 1B

High (Low) Magnitude of Consequences

  1. 1.

    Terri is a financial advisor and has 20 clients who are successful small business owners. Each business owner is investing about $500,000 with her. This represents virtually all of the retirement funds for each business. She started to report lower returns to her clients than she was actually making from the investments. As her business grew, her returns increased and the differences that she reported to her clients increased as well. Over the course of 10 years, she stole over $10 million ($1,000) from her clients.

  2. 2.

    Steve is completing his annual tax return. Every year he donates $1,000 to charity. He is eligible for a $1,000 tax credit because of his donations. This year he reported donating $20,000 ($2,000) so he’ll receive a $20,000 ($2,000) tax credit even though he actually donated $1,000.

  3. 3.

    Jim has insurance on his family’s jewelry that is worth $100,000 ($1,000). He is running short on cash so he sells his family’s jewelry to a local pawn shop for $100 ($80,000). He then makes an insurance claim that his family lost some of their jewelry so the insurance company pays him to replace his jewelry.

  4. 4.

    Bob is a 30-year old male with an annual salary of $55,000 as an accountant for a Fortune 500 company. When he does his payroll, he sometimes adds some extra days of pay. He has stolen $25,000 ($100) from the organization in the few years he has worked there.

Unethical Behavior Scenarios for Study 2

High Magnitude of Consequences

  1. 1.

    Your plane has crashed in the Himalayas. The only survivors are yourself, another man, and a young boy. The three of you travel for days, battling extreme cold and wind. Your only chance at survival is to find your way to a small village on the other side of the mountain, several days away. The boy has a broken leg and cannot move very quickly. His chances of surviving the journey are essentially zero. Without food, you and the other man will probably die as well. The other man suggests that you sacrifice the boy and eat his remains over the next few days (Schnall et al. 2008).

  2. 2.

    Matthew is playing with his new kitten late one night. He is wearing only his boxer shorts, and the kitten sometimes walks over his genitals. Eventually, this arouses him, and he begins to rub his bare genitals along the kitten’s body. The kitten purrs, and seems to enjoy the contact (Schnall et al. 2008).

  3. 3.

    A brother and sister are alone in the house and decide to make love just once. The sister is already taking birth control pills and the brother uses a condom. They both enjoy the act (Eyal et al. 2008).

  4. 4.

    The neighbors’ dog is hit by a car in front of their house and is killed. A member of the neighbors’ family has heard that dog meat is delicious, and suggests cooking it and eating it for dinner (Eyal et al. 2008).

Low Magnitude of Consequences (Detert et al. 2008)

  1. 1.

    Sam works in a fast-food restaurant. It is against policy to eat food without paying for it. Sam comes straight from classes and is, therefore, hungry. Sam’s supervisor isn’t around, so he makes something for himself and eats it without paying.

  2. 2.

    Josh waited in line for 10 min to buy a coffee and muffin at the coffee shop. When he’s a couple blocks away, he realizes that the clerk gave him change for $20 rather than for the $10 he gave him. He savors the coffee, muffin and free $10.

  3. 3.

    Todd gets the final exam back from his professor and you notice that he is marked correct three answers that he got wrong. Revealing the professor’s error would mean the difference between an A and a B. Todd says nothing.

  4. 4.

    Steph’s boss at her summer job asks her to get confidential information about a competitor’s product. She, therefore, poses as a student doing a research project on the competitor’s company and asks for the information.

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Winterich, K.P., Morales, A.C. & Mittal, V. Disgusted or Happy, It is not so Bad: Emotional Mini-Max in Unethical Judgments. J Bus Ethics 130, 343–360 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2228-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2228-2

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