Honor Bound

How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche

Ryan P. Brown

Features classic and cutting-edge research on the social psychology of honor ideology, showing how honor motivates barroom brawls, intimate partner violence, health and well-being, and public policy
Illustrates the ways honor ideology shapes everyday life
Relates the science of honor to current issues, such as domestic abuse in the NFL and organized terrorism
Author writes as a social psychologist and American southerner who was raised in Alabama, a state known for its honor culture

Honor Bound

How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche

Ryan P. Brown

Description

"Culture of honor" is what social scientists call a society that organizes social life around maintaining and defending reputation. In an honor culture, because reputation is everything, people will go to great lengths to defend their reputations and those of their family members against real and perceived threats and insults.

While most human societies throughout history can be described as "honor cultures," the United States is particularly well known for having a deeply rooted culture of honor, especially in the American South and West. In Honor Bound, social psychologist Ryan P. Brown integrates social science research, current events, and personal stories to explore and explain how honor underpins nearly every aspect of our lives, from spontaneous bar fights to organized acts of terrorism, romantic relationships, mental health and well-being, unsportsmanlike conduct in football, the commission of suicide, foreign policy decisions by political leaders, and even how parents name their babies.

Sometimes the effects of living in an honor culture are subtle and easily missed-there are fewer nursing homes in the American south, as more parents live with their children as they age-and sometimes the effects are more dramatic, as in the fact that there are more school shootings in honor states, but they are always relevant. By illuminating a surprising and pervasive thread that has endured in our culture for centuries, Brown's narrative will captivate those raised in these types of honor cultures who wish to understand themselves, and those who wish to better understand their neighbors.

Honor Bound

How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche

Ryan P. Brown

Author Information

Ryan P. Brown, Managing Director for Measurement, Doerr Institute for New Leaders, Rice University

Ryan P. Brown, Ph.D., is a social psychologist who has conducted research on how people think, feel, and behave for over 20 years. Before joining the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University, he was the L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor of Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. He has also taught at Amherst College and the University of Texas at Austin. A native Alabamian of Scottish ancestry, he continues to write, speak, and conduct research on the social dynamics of honor in the U.S. and around the world.

Honor Bound

How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche

Ryan P. Brown

Reviews and Awards

"Deep, wise, meticulously researched and beautifully written, Honor Bound shows how one strange and powerful concern has shaped the American mind." -Daniel Gilbert, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; author of Stumbling on Happiness "

"Honor Bound gives lie to the notion that Big Box stores, the Internet, and the other homogenizing influences of the modern world have turned America into a bland monoculture. Far from it, here Ryan Brown shows that the people of the United States continue to vary dramatically in their fundamental orientations to the concept of honor, which influences virtually everything we do with each other, for each other, and to each other. Thorough, imaginative, and winsomely written." -Michael McCullough, Professor and Director of the Evolution & Human Behavior Lab, University of Miami; author of Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct "

"Around the world, honor is one of the great motivating forces behind human behavior. Here in the U.S., it plays an important, though often unacknowledged role. In Honor Bound, Ryan Brown offers a panoramic tour of honor's influence on many areas of American life, including homicides, naming practices, football, foreign policy, and mental health to name a few. Brown is one of the top psychologists studying honor, and his book offers an excellent and highly accessible introduction to this powerful cultural ideal." -Dov Cohen, Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; co-author of Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South "

"One of the best things about this book is the far-ranging implications of the culture of honor that Brown and others have investigated. Their work spans individual consequences of the honor ideal (mental health, suicide rates, risk-taking) and social consequences (e.g., state spending on mental health, rates of bomb scares in schools, stand your ground laws, and domestic violence rates). It presents a convincing case that the honor ideal is pervasive and central to the psyche of American Southerners and Westerners. The fact that it is written by a Southerner who has experience in different parts of the South and Southwest is also a plus. Count me a fan. This book will have an important place on my shelf and in my classes." -Susan E. Cross, Professor Psychology and Director of Graduate Education, Iowa State University "