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Culture of Honor Belief and Judgements about Perpetrators and Victims of Honor Aggression
Pegah Nejat *1 , Reihaneh Mirghasemi2 , Ehsan Zarrinrad2 , Ali Heirani Tabas2
1- Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran , p_nejat@sbu.ac.ir
2- Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract:   (266 Views)
One of the dimensions of cross-cultural difference is known as culture of honor in the literature, according to which familial purity and honor are highly valued. However, this cultural belief can predispose men to aggression especially in the face of honor violations. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of masculine honor beliefs to judgements of perpetrators and victims of honor aggression. Participants were 348 Iranians (68.7% female, mean age=27.74 years) who responded to four honor aggression scenarios as well as the Masculine Honor Beliefs Scale. After each scenario, moral judgement of victim’s and perpetrator’s acts, justifiability of the perpetrator’s act, and victim blame were assessed. To analyze data, multivariate multiple regression analysis was used in which demographics and masculine honor beliefs served as predictors while judgements of perpetrators and victims of honor aggression were designated as criterion variables. Masculine honor beliefs predicted immorality of the victim’s act, victim blame, and perpetrator justifiability in a positive, but immorality of the perpetrator’s act in a negative direction. Among demographic variables, religiosity predicted the four criterion variables in a similar direction to but independent from masculine honor beliefs. Present findings point to the pominent role of masculine honor beliefs, as a cultural value, in determining judgements of honor aggressions.
Keywords: Honor Aggression, Victim Blame, Culture of Honor, Moral Judgement
     
Type of Study: Research | Subject: Special
Received: 2024/02/29 | Revised: 2025/05/16 | Accepted: 2025/03/13 | ePublished ahead of print: 2025/05/16
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