An Adversarial Collaboration on Dirty Money

Across four preregistered experiments on American adults (total N = 968), and five supplemental experiments (total N = 869), we examined four accounts that might explain people’s aversion to “dirty money” (i.e., money earned in immoral ways): (a) they think it is morally tainted, (b) they care about illicit ownership, (c) they do not wish to profit from moral transgressions, and (d) accepting dirty money might imply an endorsement of the immoral means by which the money was acquired. Participants were unwilling to accept or touch dirty money, but they were relatively willing to take dirty money when it is lost and found. Together these findings suggest that people’s aversion to dirty money stems from concerns about both moral taint and endorsing the way in which dirty money was acquired.