Insult, Aggression, and the Southern Culture of Honor: An "Experimental Ethnography"

Three experiments examined how norms characteristic of a culture of honor manifest themselves in the cognitions, emotions, behaviors, and physiological reactions of southern White males. Participants were University of Michigan students who grew up in the North or South. In 3 experiments they were insulted by a confederate who bumped into the participant and called him an asshole. Compared with northerners--who were relatively unaffected by the...