Herding, Warfare, and a Culture of Honor: Global Evidence
Abstract: We examine the importance of norms of revenge and punishment in perpetuating global conflicts. Our analysis leverages the well-known ‘culture of honor’ hypothesis from social psychology, which posits that traditional herding practices generate moral systems conducive to revenge-taking. We find that the descendants of herders (i) experience conflicts that are more frequent and more severe; (ii) are more likely to be involved in conflicts that are motivated by retaliation; and (iii) report a higher emphasis on revenge-taking in surveys. Our evidence suggests that a society’s traditional form of subsistence generated a functional morality that shapes conflict across the globe today.
Paola Giuliano is a Professor of Economics at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and holds the Chauncey J. Medberry Chair in Management. She is also research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge), research affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London) and research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn).
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