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Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_honor_(Southern_United_States)
The prevailing culture of the Southern United States is said to be a "culture of honor", that is a culture where people avoid unintentional offense to others and maintain a reputation for not accepting improper conduct by others.
One theory to explain why the American South has this culture is that a willingness to resort to retribution to enforce one's rights is important for a man in any region where gaining resources and keeping them depends on the community’s belief that the man can protect those resources against predators. Toughness is a strong value in such a culture because of its effect on the deterrence of such predators from one’s family, home and possessions.
The concept was tested by social scientists Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen in their book Culture of Honor,[1] and it was repopularized by a discussion in Chapter Six of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
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Read the rest of the entry. I just finished reading Outliers, one of the aspects of cultures of honor is that they arise from nomadic and herding peoples where competition for resources drives behaviour. Conversely, agricultural societies depend on cooperation and can't afford to be cultures of honor.
Despite the south being agricultural, it was settled not by farmers as much as by herders. (cf
Albion's Seed Borderlands to Backcountry)
Even more interesting as an explanation not an excuse, is somewhat recent research that shows how certain behaviors and ways of thinking are genetically encoded into a person.
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Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Haidt
Moral Foundations Theory
Haidt is best known for what he dubs "Moral Foundations Theory", which has been reported in publications such as The Atlantic,[5] Boston Globe,[6] and The Huffington Post.[7] It is the basis of his first TED talk.[8]
Moral Foundations Theory considers the way morality varies between cultures and identifies five (later revised to six) "foundations" that underlie morality in all societies and individuals. He names them using pairs of opposites to indicate that they provide continua along which judgments can be measured.[9] These are:
Care/harm for others, protecting them from harm.
Fairness/cheating, Justice, treating others in proportion to their actions, giving them their "just desserts".[10][11] (He has also referred to this dimension as Proportionality.)
Liberty/oppression, characterizes judgments in terms of whether subjects are tyrannized.
Loyalty/betrayal to your group, family, nation. (He has also referred to this dimension as Ingroup.)
Authority/subversion for tradition and legitimate authority. (He has also connected this foundation to a notion of Respect.)
Sanctity/degradation, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions. (He has also referred to this as Purity.)
Haidt found that the more politically liberal or left-wing people are, the more they tend to value care and fairness (proportionality), and the less they tend to value loyalty, respect for authority and purity. Conservatives or right-wing people, tend to value all the moral foundations somewhat equally. Similar results were found across the political spectrum in other countries.[12]
Haidt has also described the liberal emphasis on care as "one foundation morality", contrasting with the conservative moral balance.[13][14]
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The TED lecture is worth watching.