Cultures of honor and attitudes towards the criminal justice system

In the U.S., cultures of honor (COH) emerged through historical and contextual dynamics that help identify patterns of aggression and retaliation. COH is built on premise of institutional weakness and self-protection. Traditionally, honor has been interpreted as an adaptive response to weak state presence. However, areas in the U.S with high honor culture have now established strong institutions (e.g., policing). The present study investigates why honor norms persist in the presence of reliable/strong institutional support. In previous analyses, using publicly available data, results indicated strong positive correlations between state-level high honor cultures and incarceration rates, fatalities by police, value of militarized equipment, and quantity of militarized equipment. This data shows that the presence of strong institutions does not necessarily reduce honor norms; if anything, they co-exist. This supports the idea that what matters may not be whether institutions exist, but how they are perceived, particularly their legitimacy and fairness. Study 2 aims to gain individual insights into how COH are maintained and its impact on attitudes towards carceral institutions.