1. Kiersten R. Baughman Dickinson College Contact: baughmak@dickinson.edu Wives’ Experiences and Perceptions: The Influence of Culture of Honor and Mate Guarding on Satisfaction Method 205 married Caucasian women across the U.S. were recruited via Mturk as part of a larger study. They reported their actual experiences with controlling behaviors in their marriages via the MRI-SF, a measure designed for this study to assess how positively they view mate guarding (myth of commitment), and a measure of their individual level of endorsement of honor norms (HIM; Barnes et al., 2012) via an online Qualtrics link. Participants indicated how satisfied they were in their marriages (Schumm et al., 1986) as well as how long they expected to be married to their current husbands. In order to create the myth of commitment scale, instructions were revised to indicate how committed her husband would be if he performed 11 controlling behaviors on a scale from 1 (not at all committed) to 7 (extremely committed). Results A series of linear regressions were performed with DV marital happiness and IVs Culture of Honor (high vs. low), mate guarding experiences (low vs. high), myth of commitment (low vs. high) and their interactions. See Figures 1 and 2 for graphical representation of the interactions between mate guarding, myth of commitment, and culture of honor endorsement on marital happiness. Data are plotted at +/- 1 SD from the mean of culture of honor endorsement. Introduction The Culture of Honor can be found worldwide as well as in the U.S. South and West, refers to the ideals of a reputation-based society, and often results in high rates of violence (Vandello & Cohen, 2003; Vandello et al., 2009). Adhering to honor norms has been linked to positive perceptions of controlling behaviors (mate guarding) as well as higher reports of experiencing mate guarding (Baughman & Brown, 2012). The current study was designed to assess how honor norms, experiencing control (mate guarding), and perceiving that control as desirable interact to predict wives’ satisfaction in their marriages. Specifically, I predicted that women who strongly endorse honor norms and who experience mate guarding in their marriages would report marital satisfaction as long as they viewed the control as a form of commitment. Discussion The wives in the sample who reported the highest levels of satisfaction were those who had not experienced high levels of mate guarding.. Among wives who had experienced high levels of mate guarding, satisfaction was higher for those who strongly endorse honor norms. Wives who perceived mate guarding as a form of commitment reported high satisfaction only when they strongly endorsed honor norms. Among those who did not view mate guarding positively, women who did not strongly endorse honor norms reported higher satisfaction levels. These results are consistent with higher rates of intimate partner violence in honor regions. Women who strongly endorse honor norms but do not perceive control as a form of commitment could be unsatisfied because they are currently experiencing mate guarding but dislike it. If women who have experienced mate guarding perceive it to be a healthy component of marriage, these women could be at risk for violence as a result of the cycle of dominance. It is unclear how the cycle unfolds. The culture of honor could be responsible for encouraging both mate guarding and perceiving control positively. However, women who experience mate guarding could cope by choosing to perceive the control as a form of commitment, without such perceptions being specifically reinforced prior to experience. Future work will focus on husbands’ perceptions of mate guarding in the context of a culture of honor. It is important to determine where in the cycle of control the culture of honor matters. Future work will determine if honor norms encourage mate guarding, perceiving control as commitment, or even both. References Barnes, C.D., Brown, R. P., & Tamborski, M. (2012). Living dangerously: Culture of honor, risk-taking, and the non-randomness of “accidental” deaths. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 100-107. Baughman, K. R. & Brown, R. P. (2012). Honor norms and commitment: Experiences and perceptions of mate guarding. (unpublished data set) Buss, D.M., Shackelford, T.K., & McKibbin, W. F. (2008). The mate retention inventory-short form (MRI-SF). Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 322-334. Schumm. W. R., Paff-Bergen. L. A., Hatch. R. C., Obiorah. F. C., Copeland. J. M., Meens, L. D., & Bugaighis, M. A. (1986). Concurrent and discriminant validity of the kansas marital satisfaction scale. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 381-387. Vandello, J. A., & Cohen, D. (2003). Male honor and female fidelity: Implicit cultural scripts that perpetuate domestic violence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(5), 997-1010. Vandello, J. A., Cohen, D., Grandon, R., & Franiuk, R. (2009). Stand by your man: Indirect prescriptions for honorable violence and feminine loyalty in Canada, Chile, and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40, 81-104. Vandello, J. A., Cohen, D., & Ransom, S. (2008). U.S. southern and northern differences in perceptions of norms about aggression: Mechanisms for the perpetuation of a culture of honor. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 162-177. Figure 1. Marital happiness as a function of culture of honor endorsement and mate guarding experiences. Figure 2. Marital happiness as a function of culture of honor endorsement and myth of commitment.