The Experimental Study of a Culture of Honor

一项实验计划将检验在美国南部和最初由南方人定居的美国西部部分地区普遍存在的“荣誉文化”。在荣誉文化中，男性被期望通过强有力的回应来捍卫他们的力量和坚韧的声誉，当这些受到质疑时，必要时甚至使用暴力。在这些文化中，侮辱和对侮辱的反应构成了一个关键的社会动态。如果目标想要保持他的“荣誉”，也就是说，他作为一个强大的代理人的信誉，可以阻止对他的福祉和生计的更真实的威胁，那么一个无法收回的侮辱就必须受到惩罚。实验预计将显示南方人对侮辱更敏感，正如各种侵略性和表现强硬的愿望所表明的那样。预计这项研究还将表明，南方人相互执行“荣誉”标准的方式是，当对方受到冒犯而无所作为时，他们会收回对对方的尊重。最后，南方人应该有更多种预防和减少冲突的手段，因为冲突使他们比其他人面临更大的风险。然而，避免冲突的技术只是有时在防止暴力方面有效。预计这项研究将表明，如果被激怒超过一定程度，南方人会比北方人更晚表达愤怒，但更容易爆发。每年有成千上万的人在争论和冲突中丧生；还有成千上万的人因类似的冲突和虐待配偶和儿童而受到严重伤害。这些暴力事件大多是由于被冒犯而引起的。重要的是要知道，在不同的亚文化中，什么样的情况会产生冒犯感并引发暴力，什么样的心理机制在感知到的冒犯和暴力之间进行调解，什么样的规范，以什么样的方式得到认可，维持允许暴力的规范，以及什么样的社会行为有助于避免或减少冲突。除了在理论和方法上的贡献外，这个研究项目还将通过回答上述问题做出实用的贡献。

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.