Honour, competition and cooperation across 13 societies

Shuxian Jin¹, Angelo Romano^#², Vivian L Vignoles^#³, Alexander Kirchner-Häusler^{3

4}, Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón⁵, Susan E Cross⁶, Meral Gezici Yalçın⁷, Charles Harb⁸, Shenel Husnu⁹, Keiko Ishii¹⁰, Panagiota Karamaouna¹¹, Konstantinos Kafetsios^{12

13}, Evangelia Kateri¹¹, Juan Matamoros-Lima^{5

14}, Rania Miniesy¹⁵, Jinkyung Na¹⁶, Stefano Pagliaro¹⁷, Charis Psaltis¹⁸, Dina Rabie¹⁹, Manuel Teresi²⁰, Yukiko Uchida⁴, Ayse K Uskul²¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. shuxian.jin@sussex.ac.uk.
² Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology Department, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
³ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
⁴ Institute for the Future of Human Society, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
⁵ Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁷ Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
⁸ Psychology Program, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar.
⁹ Department of Psychology, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Cyprus.
¹⁰ Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
¹¹ Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece.
¹² School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹³ Department of Psychology, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
¹⁴ Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National University of Distance Education, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Economics, The British University in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt.
¹⁶ Department of Psychology, Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea.
¹⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
¹⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
¹⁹ Faculty of Social Sciences, Northeastern University London, London, UK.
²⁰ Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy.
²¹ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. A.K.Uskul@sussex.ac.uk.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 41006901
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02308-0

Honour, competition and cooperation across 13 societies

Shuxian Jin et al. Nat Hum Behav. 2025.

. 2025 Sep 26.

doi: 10.1038/s41562-025-02308-0. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. shuxian.jin@sussex.ac.uk.
² Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology Department, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
³ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
⁴ Institute for the Future of Human Society, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
⁵ Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁷ Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
⁸ Psychology Program, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar.
⁹ Department of Psychology, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Cyprus.
¹⁰ Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
¹¹ Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece.
¹² School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹³ Department of Psychology, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
¹⁴ Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National University of Distance Education, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Economics, The British University in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt.
¹⁶ Department of Psychology, Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea.
¹⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
¹⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
¹⁹ Faculty of Social Sciences, Northeastern University London, London, UK.
²⁰ Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy.
²¹ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. A.K.Uskul@sussex.ac.uk.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 41006901
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02308-0

Abstract

Effectively addressing societal challenges often requires unrelated individuals to reduce conflict and successfully coordinate actions. The cultural logic of 'honour' is frequently studied in relation to conflict, but its role in competition and cooperation remains underexplored. The current study investigates how perceived normative and personally endorsed honour values predict competition and cooperation behaviours. In an online experiment testing preregistered hypotheses, 3,371 participants from 13 societies made incentivized competition decisions in a contest game and cooperation decisions for coordination in a step-level public goods game. Perceived normative honour values were associated with greater competition and greater cooperation at both societal and individual levels. Personally endorsing values tied to defence of family reputation was associated with greater coordinative efforts, whereas endorsing self-promotion and retaliation was associated with weaker engagement in coordination. These findings highlight the role of honour as a cultural logic (in its different forms) in shaping competition and cooperation across societies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

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Grants and funding

Consolidator Grant (HONORLOGIC, 817577)/EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council)

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Honour, competition and cooperation across 13 societies

Affiliations

Honour, competition and cooperation across 13 societies

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources