The Bond That Breaks: Closeness and Honor Predict Morality-Related Aggression

Abstract

Endorsement of a "culture of honor" contributes to the belief that family honor is tied to female obedience across a variety of moral values. Violations of these moral values may lead to aggression. Male participants in studies 1 and 3 filled out a measure of cultural honor and closeness to their present wife or partner. Participants with high levels of both closeness and honor were most aggressive toward a hypothetical moral violation. In study 2, we randomly assigned men to bond or not with a female confederate who devalued his most important moral value. Participants were then given the opportunity to aggress against her in a supposedly unrelated study by choosing how much painful hot sauce she would be forced to drink. Once again, high levels of closeness and honor predicted the greatest levels of aggression. In sum, moral disagreements by women are met with increased aggression within the culture of honor, the closer an honor-endorsing male is to the woman.

Pair-Bonding as Inclusion of Other in the Self: A Literature Review

“…In a disturbing application of IOS, Benavidez et al (2016) examined the effect of closeness between partners in cultures of honor where women, when seen as disgracing their mate, can be violently punished. Endorsement of a “culture of honor,” where male partners’ or family members’ reputations can be tarnished by the acts of the females in the family, contributes to the belief that family honor is tied to female obedience across a variety of moral values.…”

Culture, Masculine Honor, and Violence Toward Women

“…Taking these attitudinal associations a step further, Benavidez, Neria, and Jones (2016) have recently shown that honor endorsement predicted men's intention to behave aggressively toward a "misbehaving" romantic partner in hypothetical scenarios, as well as their subtle aggression in the laboratory toward a female stranger who devalued a moral ideal that was important to them. These behavioral data are important, as they represent the only evidence, to date, that honor-oriented men would, in fact, behave aggressively toward women under certain circumstances, in apparent violation of the "chivalrous" mandate imbedded in honor culture's directives for men.…”

“…It remains to be seen, however, whether honor ideology might lead to more extreme forms of violently coercive behaviors, which can only be realistically assessed outside of the controlled environment of the lab. Perhaps the cultural code of honor would mitigate more serious forms of male aggression toward women than the mild form revealed by Benavidez et al (2016). Then again, the sexist attitudes that honor-oriented men tend to hold might predispose some men to behave in violent and sexually coercive ways outside the controlled environment of the lab when they feel their honor has been threatened by women, whether those women are current romantic partners who have failed to uphold cultural norms, former romantic partners who have shamed men by their rejection, or "prospective partners" who have rebuffed men's sexual advances.…”

Supporting capital punishment for rape offenders as a collective retaliation against honour threat

“…showing that one is willing to engage in physical aggression when necessary (Benavidez, Neria, & Jones, 2016;Uskul et al, 2012). On the other hand, when the accusation or insult is perceived as justified, such as when a female member of the family engages in a pre-marital/extramarital sexual affair, aggression is directed towards the 'wrongdoer' rather than the insulting party (e.g., Mojab & Abdo-Zubi, 2004).…”