Regulating honor in the face of insults

•We examined the role of prevention focus in honor-related aggression.•In three studies, we both measured and experimentally manipulated honor.•High-honor participants were initially more cooperative than low-honor participants.•However, they were also more aggressive after they were insulted.•As hypothesized, both responses were associated with prevention focus.

Previous research has examined honor-related responses prior to and after an insult but little is known about which underlying mechanisms explain this behavior. We connect honor concerns to Self-Regulation Theory and argue that honor is associated with prevention focus in an escalatory setting. In three studies, we investigated the role of prevention focus as a motivator of obliging behavior prior to conflict escalation, and aggressive behavior after conflict escalation among those high in honor. In Study 1, we found higher levels of prevention focus among high-honor participants, compared to low-honor participants, in a community sample. In two following studies we experimentally activated honor concerns and demonstrated that indeed, those high in honor were more accommodating in their initial approach to a conflict (Study 2), but showed more aggression once they engaged in an actual insulting interaction (Study 3). Additionally, both types of responses proved to be (at least partially) driven by higher levels of prevention focus. Our findings provide initial empirical support for the idea that, when honor is at stake, prevention concerns relate to obliging responses before as well as aggressive responses after conflict escalation following insults.