Istanbul uprisings of the summer of 2013 over the government’s
plans to raze Gezi Park, both the protestors and the
government, who used force against the protestors, claimed
to be partly motivated by honor (Oz, 2013; “Turkish President
Warns,” 2013). This suggests that the everyday conceptions
of honor in Turkey may have diverse components that can
motivate quite different behaviors. Examination of lay conceptions
of honor can identify biases or hidden assumptions
in the existing research, and lay conceptions can be used to
assess competing theories (Fehr, 2005). Finally, the specific
features and dimensions of the construct identified through a
prototype analysis can contribute to the refinement of measurement
tools.
Second, these studies expand research on honor beyond
the focus on aggression and reciprocity that has tended to
dominate much of the research (at least in the United States).
In particular, these results focus on positive aspects of honor
and illustrate how people may mean different things when
they claim to be acting in the name of honor. When the protestors
at Gezi Park in Istanbul claimed that attacks on their
honor was partly what propelled them to act (e.g., Oz, 2013),
it is unclear whether self-respect, the opinions of others, or a
desire to behave morally (or all three) motivated their behavior.
The three dimensions are interrelated, but further research
into their differential influence on specific behaviors as well
as on individual differences in the strength of the three
dimensions would provide a more nuanced understanding of
honor.
One problem with comparisons of two cultural groups is
that they may differ on many dimensions in addition to the
dimension under investigation. Although our samples were
generally similar in age and SES, they differed in terms of
their religious heritage and degree of religious devotion. As
noted in the footnotes, the Turkish samples tended to be more
devout than the U.S. samples; furthermore, religious devotion
was related to the moral behavior dimension in Studies
2 and 3 in the combined samples. Most religions encourage
virtuous, upright behavior; thus, this association is unsurprising.
Yet, religious devotion was not strongly related to the
other components of honor. Some people have associated
honor-related behavior (such as honor killings) with religion,
but the existing anthropological research disputes that belief
(Wikan, 2008). Our findings suggest that this perceived association
between religion and honor may lie in the shared
importance of moral behavior. It would be intriguing to further
explore the ways that religious beliefs and honor-related
ideologies interact to influence behavior.
Moreover, this work did not uncover gendered dimensions
of honor, which has been the focus of other researchers
(e.g., Barnes, Brown, & Osterman, 2012; Rodriguez
Mosquera, Manstead, & Fischer, 2002b; Vandello et al.,
2009). The gender differences in these studies were inconsistent
(see footnotes) except for one finding: Men rated moral
behavior as less central to the prototype of honor (Study 2)
and less personally important (Study 3) than did women.
There are many double standards in cultural norms and roles
for men and women, and women may intuit that they have
more to lose from moral missteps than do men. Because we
did not directly ask for gendered features of honor, these
findings may understate the importance of gendered social
roles in honor-related behaviors.
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