Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Are Mediterranean societies “cultures of honor?”: Prevalence and implications of a cultural logic of honor across three world regions

Vignoles, Vivian L., Kirchner-Häusler, Alexander, Uskul, Ayse K., Cross, Susan E., Rodriguez-Bailón, Rosa, Bossom, Isabella R. L., Castillo, Vanessa A., Gezici-Yalçın, Meral, Harb, Charles, Ishii, Keiko, and others. (2024) Are Mediterranean societies “cultures of honor?”: Prevalence and implications of a cultural logic of honor across three world regions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, . ISSN 0146-1672. E-ISSN 1552-7433. (doi:10.1177/01461672241295500) (KAR id:108359)

Abstract

Mediterranean societies are often labeled as “honor cultures,” in contrast with presumed “dignity” and “face” cultures of Anglo-Western and East Asian societies. We measured these cultural logics in two large-scale surveys (Studies 1 & 3: N = 2,942 students from 11 societies; Study 2: N = 5,471 adults from 14 societies). Middle Eastern and North African groups perceived honor values as the most normative in their societies, followed by Southeast European, and then Latin-European groups (who were comparable to Anglo-Western and East-Asian groups). East-Asian and Anglo-Western groups, respectively, perceived face and dignity values as most normative. Culture-level variation in perceived normative honor values, but not personal values, accounted for previously reported differences between Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean samples in several (but not all) measures of social cognitive tendencies. We conclude that a cultural logic of honor plays a role in Mediterranean societies, but labeling these societies as “honor cultures” is oversimplistic.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/01461672241295500
Uncontrolled keywords: Mediterranean region; honor; face; dignity; cognitive style; social orientation
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Funders: European Research Council (https://ror.org/0472cxd90)
SWORD Depositor: JISC Publications Router
Depositing User: JISC Publications Router
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2025 12:58 UTC
Last Modified: 24 Jan 2025 11:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/108359 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views of this page since July 2020. For more details click on the image.