Your Coworker Called You a Liar. What’s Next?

Imagine that your coworker falsely accuses you of lying. The next day, your manager tells you to choose a partner for an upcoming project, which involves a bonus for both of you, if successful. The coworker who called you a liar happens to be the most qualified person for this project—by working with him, you'll probably get the bonus. Would you swallow your pride and offer to work with him to get the bonus, or would you punish him (and yourself) and risk the bonus by not choosing him?

Our research showed that the answer to this question depends on two things: 1) whether the coworker attacked your moral character (e.g., by calling you a liar) or your competence (e.g., by calling you a bad writer), and 2) whether you are from an honor culture or not.

Societies in the Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Latin American regions, as well as European Americans from the Southern states of the U.S., are considered honor cultures. In these contexts, honor means being proud of your moral character and competence, as well as earning and maintaining the respect of others in these domains. For example, in honor cultures, your reputation may be damaged not only by doing something immoral, but also when other people falsely accuse you of something immoral. People from honor cultures react to these kinds of accusations by retaliating so that they can restore their reputation, especially if the accusation targets their moral character. People from dignity cultures, such as European Americans from Northern U.S. states, are less affected by these honor threats. It's not that honor doesn't matter in dignity cultures. Rather, honor is seen as more internal and stable, and less likely to be damaged by other people's comments. Moreover, competence is an equally (if not more) important aspect of honor than morality in dignity cultures.

In our recent work, we addressed two follow-up questions: Would people from honor cultures be so motivated to retaliate that they would jeopardize their other goals? What would they do if there was no opportunity to punish the person who dishonored them?  

When the Dishonored Person Has a Chance to Retaliate

We conducted our first study with undergraduates in Turkey (a Middle Eastern honor culture), the Southern U.S. (a U.S. honor culture), and the Northern U.S. (a U.S. dignity culture). Participants completed a mock job application, for which they wrote an essay about a time they behaved honestly. They were then evaluated by two recruiters; in reality, there were no recruiters, and the evaluations were prepared by us. Recruiter 1 provided neutral feedback, whereas Recruiter 2 either attacked participants' morality reputation by accusing them of making up the incident or their competence by criticizing their writing style.

Participants were then asked to choose one of the recruiters as their partner for the next task, which involved a prize if they were successful. Recruiter 2 was always presented as the better-qualified person for the task.

We found that participants from the honor group (Turkey and the U.S. South) were less likely to choose Recruiter 2 (the offensive, but most qualified recruiter who could help them win the prize) than Recruiter 1, especially if Recruiter 2 attacked their moral reputation by calling them a liar. This choice was especially clear in the Turkish sample. U.S. dignity participants, however, were equally likely to choose the two recruiters for the team task.

When Retaliation Is Not an Option

Sometimes people can't confront the person who impugns them. What would people from honor cultures do in these situations? We addressed this question in a second study.

This time, participants were given an ostensibly unrelated task to work on individually, right after receiving negative or neutral feedback from a recruiter. They were told that they could win a prize depending on their performance.

Turkish participants persisted longer on the task if they received a morality threat (i.e., being called a liar), whereas U.S. dignity culture participants persisted longer if they received a competence threat (i.e., being criticized for their writing skills) relative to other types of feedback. U.S. honor culture participants persisted longer after both types of threats, relative to the neutral feedback condition.

What to Take Away

People from honor cultures may retaliate against someone who attacks their moral character (a central dimension of honor in these contexts), even at the expense of other goals. If retaliation is not possible, however, they may work harder in a different domain to reestablish their honor. People from dignity cultures are less affected by threats to their moral reputation; however, if their competence is challenged, they may work harder to prove the criticism wrong. The way people react when their honor is challenged depends on the specific cultural context and the tools people have to address the challenge.   

For Further Reading

Günsoy, C., Cross, S. E., Castillo, V.A., Uskul, A.K., Wasti, S.A., Salter, P. S., Carter-Sowell, A., Yegin, A., Erdas, K.D., Crist, J.D., Perez, M.J., & Gul, P. (2023). Goal derailment and goal persistence in response to honor threats. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 54, 365 –384. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221221137749

Günsoy, C., Joo, M., Cross, S. E., Uskul, A.K., Gul, P., Wasti, S.A., Salter, P., Haugen, A., Erdas, K.D., & Yegin, A. (2020). The influence of honor threats on goal delay and goal derailment: A comparison of Turkey, Southern US, and Northern US. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.103974

Uskul, A.K., Cross, S.E., & Günsoy, C. (2023). The role of honor in intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup processes. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 17, e12719. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12719

Ceren Günsoy is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island and studies culture's influence on psychological processes.