{"id":29231,"date":"2022-04-12T00:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T00:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=29231"},"modified":"2022-04-25T20:50:14","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T20:50:14","slug":"will-smiths-slap-shows-honor-culture-is-alive-and-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/will-smiths-slap-shows-honor-culture-is-alive-and-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith\u2019s slap shows \u2018honor culture\u2019 is alive and well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

H. Colleen Sinclair<\/a>, Mississippi State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After witnessing the \u201cslap heard around the world<\/a>\u201d during the 2022 Oscars, I wasn\u2019t surprised when the internet split into two camps: #TeamWill and #TeamChris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a social psychologist who studies aggression<\/a>, I also wasn\u2019t surprised to see support for Will Smith \u2013 who slapped comedian Chris Rock after Rock joked about Smith\u2019s wife\u2019s alopecia<\/a> \u2013 involve similar justifications: namely that the actor was \u201cdoing what needed to be done<\/a>\u201d to protect his wife, and that doing so made him \u201ca real man<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These defenses contain elements of what social scientists call a \u201cculture of honor<\/a>,\u201d which is prevalent in certain regions, ethnic groups and subcultures around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How cultures of honor flourish<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cultures of honor<\/a> require men to aggressively defend their reputations against insults or threats, and this imperative extends to protecting their spouses, children and property. To not lash out at slights makes one less of a man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This concept can be confused with \u201ctoxic masculinity<\/a>\u201d \u2013 which is a brand of anti-feminist hypermasculinity that promotes independence, emotional blunting and aggression to establish dominance over men and women. In fact, recent research finds<\/a> the two concepts are distinct, with a culture of honor more closely tied<\/a> to benevolent attitudes toward women and notions of chivalry. However, these two concepts can overlap, particularly in more traditional cultures<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers argue<\/a> that cultures of honor flourished in communities where law enforcement was inconsistent or nonexistent \u2013 such as the 19th-century American frontier and herding communities<\/a> that lived in Africa and Latin America. This work has also been used to understand violence in certain<\/a> inner-city communities<\/a> where the police are less trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these places, a man\u2019s reputation becomes his first line of defense. If it becomes known that slights against him or his family won\u2019t go unpunished, it makes transgressors less likely to push their luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When some see violence as acceptable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Research on this topic can be traced to the work of social psychologists Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen<\/a>, who sought to explain why homicide rates were significantly higher in the U.S. South and West than in the rest of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing crime statistics, Nisbett was able to show that the difference in homicide rates was due to the South and West having a higher rate of homicides tied to arguments. The country\u2019s different regions were similarly intolerant of violence, more generally, on questionnaires<\/a>. However, respondents in the South were more likely to say violence was justified when a man \u2013 or his family \u2013 was insulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In subsequent studies<\/a>, Cohen and Nisbett randomly sent one of two job applications to businesses throughout the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accompanying each application was a cover letter in which the applicant sought to explain a felony conviction, chalking it up to a misspent youth. In half of the letters, that felony conviction was a car theft. In the other half, it was manslaughter spurred by an insult. When the employer was from states where a culture of honor is more predominant, the researchers found that the hypothetical murderer actually received more responses \u2013 and with a far more understanding tone \u2013 than the car thief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same study, Cohen and Nisbett recruited college journalists from around the country and randomly assigned them to write up a story about either an insult-related murder or a felony-related murder. Researchers found that the journalists cast the insult-related murder in a more favorable light when the journalist was writing for a paper in a state with a culture of honor \u2013 places like Texas, Alabama and Montana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other experiments, researchers have been able to show that after being insulted, people who adhere to an honor ideology register higher levels of testosterone and cortisol<\/a> \u2013 two hormones tied to aggression and stress. They were also less willing to forgive a transgressor and had a tougher time calming down<\/a> after being slighted. Finally, in questionnaires they were more likely to exhibit anger and shame when recalling a recent insult<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Man
People who adhere to an honor ideology are more likely to justify violence as a response to insults directed at themselves or family members. Robyn Beck\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No remorse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the real world, places that adhere to the honor belief system are more likely to have school shootings<\/a>. In these same states, convicted murderers were less likely to express remorse<\/a> ahead of their executions. It\u2019s important, however, to exercise caution around making definitive conclusions about statistically rare events<\/a> like school shootings and executions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Will Smith accepted his Best Actor Oscar for his role in \u201cKing Richard<\/a>,\u201d he praised Richard Williams for doing everything he could to protect his family. To many viewers, Smith was summoning virtues like honor and chivalry to justify his actions earlier in the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off the Oscars stage, you can also see a culture of honor being used to explain the Ukrainians\u2019 dogged defense of their country<\/a> against a more powerful Russian invader, with Ukrainians praised for honorably defending home and hearth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, cultural differences aren\u2019t the only factor influencing the way people responded to the slap. For instance, you\u2019d expect fellow comedians to defend Chris Rock<\/a> out of solidarity<\/a>. And racist reactions<\/a> were bound to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while many people were quick to declare that \u201cviolence is never the answer<\/a>,\u201d for others violence can, in fact, be the answer \u2013 and that\u2019s due, in part, to the fact that honor culture is alive and well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H. Colleen Sinclair<\/a>, Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Mississippi State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. Colleen Sinclair, Mississippi State University After witnessing the \u201cslap heard around the world\u201d during the 2022 Oscars, I wasn\u2019t surprised when the internet split into two camps: #TeamWill and #TeamChris. As a social psychologist who studies aggression, I also wasn\u2019t surprised to see support for Will Smith \u2013 who slapped comedian Chris Rock after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[4037,6723,11640,3975,198,178,11641,461,876,845],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29359,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29231\/revisions\/29359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}