Individual Differences in Masculine Honor Beliefs Predict Attitudes Toward Aggressive Security Measures, War, and Peace

We hypothesized that individual differences in masculine honor beliefs (MHBs) would predict participants' views of the world and the potential for evil and good among the people in it, as well as their attitudes toward war, peace, and aggressive security policies. Participants' levels of MHBs were positively associated with their support for war and aggressive security policies (Studies 1 and 2), as well as beliefs in pure evil and perceptions of the world as a competitive jungle (Study 2), and they were negatively associated with their support for peacemaking (Study 2) even after controlling for participants' levels of social desirability, conservatism, and trait aggression (Study 1); sex (Studies 1 and 2); and beliefs in pure evil and pure good (Study 2). We contend that individual differences in MHB are important for understanding how individuals perceive their worlds as places in which the potential and capacity for violence are needed to maintain safety and security.