A Socio-Ecological and Multilevel Approach to the Role of Honour Cultures on Violence Justification
Resource Scarcity and Ineffective Law Enforcement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10077181 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mete Sefa Uysal (0000-0002-8698-9213, University of Exeter, corresponding author), Ayse K Uskul (0000-0001-8013-9931, University of Sussex) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 723-741 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0221 • E-ISSN: 1552-5422 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00220221261431329 |
| OpenAlex | W7148383821 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 47 |
This study examines how the socio-ecology of honour shapes the justification of violence, focusing on resource scarcity and inadequate law enforcement at both national and individual levels. Using World Values Survey data and a multilevel design (57 countries, N = 73,838), we found that personal experiences of economic precarity and witnessing crime predict stronger justification of violence. These relationships were moderated by country-level indicators of honour-related socio-ecology: national-level low income, unequal distribution of resources, and low adherence to the rule of law, used as proxies of resource scarcity and inadequate law enforcement. In countries with weak socio-ecological roots of honour (higher income, lower inequality, and stricter rule of law), personal experiences of precarity and crime exposure are linked to stronger justification of violence, whereas in countries with strong socio-ecological roots of honour, the effect sizes of these associations were negligible. We discuss the social comparison, cultural fit, and cultural backlash hypotheses as possible explanations of the observed interaction effect between national- and individual-level factors
Enforcement · Honour · Precarity · Resource (disambiguation · Resource distribution · Scarcity · Cultural Differences and Values · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Social Capital and Networks
Cultural Prototypes and Dimensions of Honor
The Local-Ladder Effect
Self-Protection and the Culture of Honor
Field Experiments Examining the Culture of Honor
Don’t Tread on Me
Cultural Backlash
Are Mediterranean Societies “Cultures of Honor?”
Restoring Honor by Slapping or Disowning the Daughter
The social and cultural psychology of honour
Violence and U.S. regional culture
A different kind of honor culture
Gender specific honor codes and cultural change
Supporting capital punishment for rape offenders as a collective retaliation against honour threat
Relative and absolute scarcity of nature. Assessing the roles of economics and ecology for biodiversity conservation
A price to pay
Judgments of marital rape as a function of honor culture, masculine reputation threat, and observer gender
Within- and between-culture variation
Rude or just blunt? Honor, dignity, and spontaneous trait inferences from potentially offensive behaviors
Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor
Culture, social organization, and patterns of violence
Subjective socioeconomic status causes aggression
Low-status compensation
Law, social policy, and violence
Neither Eastern nor Western
Male honor and female fidelity
A social comparison theory meta-analysis 60+ years on
Honour, competition and cooperation across 13 societies
The Legacy of Lynching and Southern Homicide
On the Psychology of Scarcity
Socioeconomic Status, Subcultural Definitions, and Violent Delinquency
Honor Bound
Stand by Your Man
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |