Posted on 08/15/2011 12:00:45 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
People do stupid things all the time and they do them in all geographic regions, but as any regular viewer of Comedy Central’s "Tosh 2.0" can tell you, there does seem to be an uncanny correlation between certain regions of the country and the kind of risk-taking behavior that could get you seriously hurt or even killed.
That’s the premise of a new study out today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. The three authors, all from the University of Oklahoma, found that states with a “culture of honor” –- in the South, and the West, mainly -- also have higher rates of accidental death for white males: 42 per 100,000 compared to 36.8 per 100,000 in non “honor” states.
So what’s a “culture of honor”? “The relentless, and sometimes violent, defense of masculine reputation,” according to the study.
“This is an adaptation to what the Ulster Scots [also called the Scots-Irish] experienced over 800 or 900 years in southern Scotland,” one of the study’s authors, Ryan P. Brown, explained. “That’s a breeding ground for the types of dynamics we are looking at.”
Interclan raiding and warfare led to allegiance to family and a high value being placed on one’s personal bravery; think Mel Gibson and his blue William Wallace face. Then, when those people came to the United States, they tended to move to some pretty wild areas.
“During the 1700s they came to Appalachia and they were dirt poor,” Brown said. “So they didn’t get the nice land, they got pushed into the back country” where there wasn’t exactly a cop on the beat.
They defended themselves against threats real or imagined, including threats to their reputations as manly men. Hence the fabled Hatfield-McCoy feud.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This is news? I’ve been reading about this phenomenon for something like 30 years, and it was covered pretty well in “Outliers”.
They also build nations, win wars and create a culture that makes things, instead of one that lays back and takes them.
Yeah, but this time it was probably paid for by shovel ready money.
Cowards die a thousand times.
Good point. I was thinking more along the lines of that clown who somehow crashed his 4x4 onto the roof of his house.
Remembering the old Richard Pryor routine:
“I’m MACHO MAN....I’ll take that knife and shove it up your a$$.”
You’ll go very quickly from “Macho Man” to “Dead Person.”
So Alexander and MSNBC want everyone to be a Mr Sissypants like their boys Hussein 0bama and Chrissy Matthews? Hell no! I rather be a REAL man and die young, than to be a coward and live forever!
The three authors, all from the University of Oklahoma, found that states with a “culture of honor” –- in the South, and the West, mainly — also have higher rates of accidental death for white males
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Why is this honor culture limited to white males?
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True. I’m pretty sure that Black and Hispanic cultures also have the honor thing going for them.
Some Asian cultures too.
At least “macho guys” have something worth living, fighting, and, if necessary, dying for.
In Hispanic cultures it's called machismo.
...as any regular viewer of Comedy Central’s “Tosh 2.0” can tell you....
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Boy, that is some impressive reference source, huh?
They also build nations, win wars and create a culture that makes things, instead of one that lays back and takes them.
(((
Amen!
I suspect there’s a liberal feminyst movement to equate “macho” with “stupid”.
Without jumping into a discussion of "alpha" vs "beta" males, I'd like to point out that those so-called "macho" males also are probably far more likely to pass along their genetic material.
Even if some beta chump gets to raise the offspring.
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