Honor as Amplified Domains of Reputation Management

In the domain of reputation and self-presentation research, multiple theorists have proposed that people care about different aspects of their self-presentation (e.g., honesty, skills, formidability), and these may vary in different interdependent relationships and coalitional contexts. Similarly, culture of honor theorists suggest that there is not only one aspect of honor (e.g., Rodriguez-Mosquera, 2016), as evidenced by studies showing that cultures differ in what it means to be ‘honorable’, how driven people are in defending their honor, and its manifest indicators (e.g., feelings of anger, aggressive behavior). However, the current literature does not typically explain honor as the product of the activity of individual-level psychological mechanisms, but more as something that is `done to people` by the external culture. We suggest (along similar lines to Shakelford, 2005) that honor cultures can be understood by differential activation of individuals` psychological mechanisms that are shared by all people, i.e., mechanisms that promote aspects of reputation depending on the social threats and opportunities identified in particular social situations and cultures. From this perspective, we argue that cultures of honor arise when

particular domains of reputation concerns – morality, congeniality, male reputation for formidability, female reputation for sexual control and chastity – are amplified (sometimes simultaneously) and when reputation by association to group/family effects become salient due to particular social or ecological conditions (e.g., competition over mates, high crime and violence). We will present preliminary evidence supporting this view, and discuss implications for understanding different types of culture – honor, dignity, etc. – and future research directions.