How Counterfeits Infect Genuine Products: The Role of Moral Disgust

We argue that moral disgust toward counterfeiting can degrade both the efficacy of products perceived to be counterfeits and that of genuine products resembling them. Five studies support our propositions and highlight the infectious nature of counterfeiting: Perceiving a product as a counterfeit made disgust more mentally accessible, and led participants to disinfect the item more and reduce how long they remained in physical contact with it...