Abstract
Using both college students and a national sample of adults, the authors report evidence linking the ideology of masculine honor in the U.S. with militant responses to terrorism. In Study 1, individuals' honor ideology endorsement predicted, among other outcomes, open-ended hostile responses to a fictitious attack on the Statue of Liberty and support for the use of extreme counterterrorism measures (e.g., severe interrogations), controlling for right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and other covariates. In Study 2, the authors used a regional classification to distinguish honor state respondents from nonhonor state respondents, as has traditionally been done in the literature, and showed that students attending a southwestern university desired the death of the terrorists responsible for 9/11 more than did their northern counterparts. These studies are the first to show that masculine honor ideology in the U.S. has implications for the intergroup phenomenon of people's responses to terrorism.
Highlights
I observed [painted] on one of the drums belonging to the marines . . . a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, “Don’t tread on me.” . . . Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?
—An American Guesser, Pennsylvania Journal, December 27, 1775. This “American Guesser” believed that the rattlesnake on the Gadsden Flag captured the essence of colonial American identity: Its lidless eyes were a mark of vigilance; its confidence in the face of provocation, a sign of courage; its rattle and poisonous fangs, symbols of mortal danger to those who encroached on its territory
Prior research has focused on the link between honor and interpersonal aggression, we examine the link between honor and national or collective aggression in the form of militant responses terrorism
Summary
I observed [painted] on one of the drums belonging to the marines . . . a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, “Don’t tread on me.” . . . Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?. Societies structured around the second definition are referred to by social scientists as cultures of honor Such cultures exist throughout the world, including South America (e.g., Johnson & Lipsett-Rivera, 1998), regions of the Mediterranean (e.g., Peristiany, 1966), and the U.S South (e.g., Wyatt-Brown, 1982). Common to the theoretical arguments for the above findings is the importance of reputation maintenance in honor cultures relative to others In light of this emphasis, it is not surprising that reputational threats in the form of insults carry special weight in cultures of honor and elicit a variety of negative reactions from members, not the least of which is violence, especially among males. Of the dimensions of honor highlighted above, one is of central importance to the culture of honor in the southern
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