•Consumers’ information processing mode (holistic vs. analytic) leads to different moral reasoning strategies.•Individual (Collective) self-concept prompts moral decoupling (coupling) selection.•Moral coupling (decoupling) has a positive (negative) impact on negative word of mouth intent. Robust evidence suggests that cultural variation affects consumer information processing. However, how different cultural orientations lead consumers to different moral judgments toward celebrity endorsers’ unethical behaviors is less appreciated. Drawing on the dual agency model, we show through two experiments that consumers’ information processing mode (holistic vs. analytic) leads to different moral judgment outcomes. This study contributes to the literature by (1) identifying the substantial roles of consumers’ cultural background and cognitive processing style on their response to negative publicity about celebrity athletes, (2) demonstrating the influence of cultural cognition on moral reasoning for both chronic (study 1) and working self-concepts (study 2), and (3) empirically testing the mediating role of the information processing mode on the effect of cultural cognition on moral judgment processes and its subsequent outcomes for celebrity athlete evaluation. The findings shed important managerial insights for managers dealing with athlete’s unethical behaviors in different cultural contexts.