title: Moral Violations Reduce Oral Consumption.
abstract: Consumers frequently encounter moral violations in everyday life. They watch movies and television shows about crime and deception, hear news reports of corporate fraud and tax evasion, and hear gossip about cheaters and thieves. How does exposure to moral violations influence consumption? Because moral violations arouse disgust and because disgust is an evolutionarily important signal of contamination that should provoke a multi-modal response, we hypothesize that moral violations affect a key behavioral response to disgust: reduced oral consumption. In three experiments, compared with those in control conditions, people drank less water and chocolate milk while (a) watching a film portraying the moral violations of incest, (b) writing about moral violations of cheating or theft, and (c) listening to a report about fraud and manipulation. These findings imply that "moral disgust" influences consumption in ways similar to core disgust, and thus provide evidence for the associations between moral violations, emotions, and consumer behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder.
authors.forename: Leaf
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Boven
authors.affiliation: Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration, FGV, Rio de Janeiro.
authors.forename: Eduardo B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ariely
keywords: Consumption; Disgust; Emotions; Morality