Are Mediterranean societies ‘Cultures of Honor’? Prevalence and implications of a cultural logic of honor across three world regions

Mediterranean societies are often labelled 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 (Study 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 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.<p></p>