The Experimental Study of a Culture of Honor

一项实验计划将考察美国南部和最初由南方人定居的美国西部部分地区存在的“荣誉文化”。在崇尚荣誉的文化中，人们期望男性通过强有力的回应来捍卫自己在力量和坚韧方面的声誉，如果有必要，当这些声誉受到质疑时，还会使用暴力。在这种文化中，侮辱和对侮辱的反应构成了一种关键的社会动力。如果目标想要保留他的“荣誉”，也就是他作为一个强大的代理人的信誉，能够阻止对他的福祉和生计的更多真正的威胁，那么这种不可挽回的侮辱必须受到惩罚。预计实验将显示，南方人对侮辱更敏感，这一点从各种攻击性和展示韧性的愿望上可见一斑。这项研究还有望表明，南方人相互执行“荣誉”标准，不尊重那些在受到冒犯时对此无能为力的人。最后，预计南方人将拥有更多预防和减少冲突的手段，因为冲突将他们置于比其他人更大的风险中。然而，避免冲突的技术只有在防止暴力方面有时才有效。这项研究预计将表明，如果被激怒超过一定程度，南方人表达愤怒的时间会晚于北方人，但更具爆炸性。每年都有数千人在争论和冲突中丧生；另有数万人因类似的冲突以及虐待配偶和儿童而受重伤。这种暴力很大程度上是被认为受到冒犯的结果。重要的是要知道，什么样的情况在不同的亚文化中造成冒犯感并引发暴力，什么样的心理机制在感知到的冒犯和暴力之间起到调节作用，什么样的规范以什么方式受到制裁，维持允许暴力的规范，以及什么社会行为有助于避免或减少冲突。除了理论和方法上的贡献外，这个研究项目还将通过为上述问题提供答案来做出务实的贡献。

A program of experiments will examine the "culture of honor" reputed to exist both in the southern United States and in parts of the western United States initially settled by southerners. In cultures of honor, men are expected to defend their reputations for strength and toughness by responding forcefully, and with violence if necessary, when these are impugned. Insults and reactions to insults constitute a key social dynamic in such cultures. An unretracted insult must be punished if the target is to retain his "honor," that is, his credibility as a powerful agent who can deter more genuine threats to his well-being and livelihood. Experiments are expected to show the southerner's greater sensitivity to insults, as indicated by various measures of aggressiveness and desire to display toughness. The research is also expected to show that southerners mutually enforce standards of "honor" by withdrawing respect from the person who, when affronted, fails to do anything about it. Finally, southerners are expected to have a wider variety of means of preventing and reducing conflict, because conflict places them at more risk than it does others. Conflict avoidance techniques are only sometimes effective in preventing violence, however. The research is expected to show that, if provoked beyond a certain point, southerners will express anger later than northerners, but more explosively. Thousands of people are killed every year in the context of arguments and conflicts; and tens of thousands more are severely injured as the result of similar conflicts and as a result of spouse and child abuse. Much of this violence is the result of perceived affronts. It is important to know what sorts of situations create a sense of affront and provoke violence in different subcultures, what psychological mechanisms mediate between perceived affront and violence, what sorts of norms, sanctioned in what ways, sustain the norms allowing violence, and what social behaviors serve to avoid or reduce conflict. In addition to its theoretical and methodological contributions, this program of research will make pragmatic contributions by providing answers to the foregoing questions.