Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: An experimental ethnography.

Abstract

Three experiments examine how norms characteristic of a culture of honor manifest themselves in the cognitions, emotions, behaviors, and physiological reactions of southern white males. Subjects were University of Michigan students who grew up in the North or South. In three experiments, they were insulted by a confederate who bumped into the subject and called him an asshole. Compared to northerners--who were relatively unaffected--southerners became more (a) likely to think their masculine reputation was threatened; (b) upset by the insult (as shown by a rise in cortisol levels); (c) physiologically primed for aggression (as shown by a rise in testosterone levels); (d) cognitively primed for aggression; and (e) likely to engage in actual aggressive or dominance behaviors. On several measures, northerners and southerners were not differentially affected by the insult. Thus, on measures that were pallid or not related to insult or dominance, southerners and northerners did not differ in their reactions. Such results help outline the contours of the culture of honor, suggesting that aggression is closely tied to issues of dominance and status and not manifested as a general hostility to all stimuli. Findings highlight the insult-aggression cycle in cultures of honor, where insults diminish reputation and the individual tries to restore his status by aggressive or violent behavior.