Honor as Goal Pursuit: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

人类有一种基本的需求，那就是感受到自己受到他人的尊重。在一些文化中(称为“荣誉文化”)，对他人的尊重和积极的道德地位的关注是个人身份认同的核心，以至于它可以凌驾于其他动机之上。因此，如果个人觉得他们受到了侮辱或对他们的荣誉的威胁，就可能产生严重的冲突。在这样的文化中，捍卫个人荣誉的重要性可能会导致在外人看来非理性和过于咄咄逼人的行为，荣誉文化的成员努力维护和保护自己的荣誉，即使这会导致代价高昂的后果，如受伤或死亡。这项拟议的研究的目的是了解并试图减少那些来自荣誉文化的人感到自己的荣誉受到侮辱或虚假指控的威胁时出现的危险。这项拟议中的研究将美国国内外荣誉文化的成员与缺乏强有力荣誉规范的文化成员进行了比较。这项研究测试了一种假设，即荣誉文化成员对维护和保护荣誉的担忧会干扰其他与目标相关的行为，并且这些行为后果可以通过恢复荣誉的干预来减少。这项拟议的研究旨在更好地理解荣誉文化成员对被感觉到的冒犯做出反应的看似“非理性”的方式，从而与参与公共政策和与荣誉文化成员进行经济互动的人相关。此外，更好地理解与目标相关的行为有关的荣誉对组织行为、谈判和冲突管理具有重要意义。这项研究涉及美国不同地区的研究人员和来自非美国荣誉文化的研究人员的合作。两项研究测试了来自荣誉文化的人是否更有可能利用经济激励来惩罚那些诋毁自己荣誉的人(通过说他们不诚实)，即使这种惩罚对演员来说代价高昂。三项研究考察了荣誉威胁是否会通过分散注意力来影响目标设定、启动和坚持性，从而影响目标的实现。最后两个实验考察了荣誉威胁对追求目标的负面影响是否可以通过在实验室中的短暂经历来减少，这些经历允许参与者表现得体面并因此获得认可，或者通过回忆他们被他人授予荣誉的经历。通过了解这些与荣誉相关的过程，这项研究将帮助美国企业、政府机构和非政府组织处理在基于荣誉的文化中工作时的冲突和沟通失误。这项研究的国际部分得到了国际科学与工程办公室(OISE)的共同资助。

Humans have a fundamental need to feel they are respected by others. In some cultures (termed "honor cultures"), the concern for having others' respect and positive moral standing is so central to individuals' identity that it can take primacy over other motives. As a result, serious conflicts can arise if individuals feel that they have received an insult or threat to their honor. In such cultures, the importance of defending one's honor can lead to behavior that can seem irrational and excessively aggressive to outsiders, with members of honor cultures striving to assert and protect their honor even when it leads to costly consequences such as injury or death. The objective of the proposed research is to understand and attempt to reduce the dangers that arise when those from honor cultures feel their honor has been threatened by an insult or false accusation. The proposed studies compare members of honor cultures within and outside the U.S. to members of cultures that lack strong honor norms. The research tests the hypothesis that concern over maintenance and protection of honor among members of honor cultures can interfere with other goal-related behavior, and that these behavioral consequences can be reduced by interventions that restore honor. The proposed research seeks to develop a better understanding of the seemingly "irrational" ways that members of honor cultures respond to perceived affronts and is therefore relevant to people involved in public policy and economic interactions with members of honor-based cultures. Moreover, a better understanding of honor with respect to goal-related behaviors has important implications for organizational behavior, negotiation, and conflict management.The research involves a collaboration of researchers based in different regions of the U.S. and researchers from a non-U.S. honor culture. Two studies test whether individuals from honor cultures are more likely to use economic incentives to punish someone who impugns their honor (by calling them dishonest) even when such punishment is costly for the actor. Three studies examine whether honor threats derail goal attainment by creating a distraction which affects goal setting, initiation, and persistence. Two final experiments examine whether an honor threat's negative consequences for goal pursuit can be reduced by brief experiences in the lab that allow participants to behave honorably and receive recognition for doing so, or by recalling experiences when they were accorded honor by others. By understanding these honor-related processes, this research will help U.S. businesses, governmental agencies, and non-governmental organizations deal with conflict and miscommunication when working in honor-based cultures.The international component of this research was supported by co-funding from the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).