NEW YORK: People strongly value their reputation and will go to extraordinary lengths - such as preferring to kill themselves or cutting off their hands - to protect their image, a study has found. History is filled with examples of people defending their honour, sometimes to death.
Ship captains, for example, were long expected to go down with their ships. Researchers studied whether that intense desire to maintain one's image prevail in modern times.
Researchers, including those from Florida State University in the US, conducted experiments involving fake tests and combined data from several previous studies to learn more about how strenuously people will protect their reputation.
The team looked for examples in four prior studies on pride and honour.
They found many examples that showed people do still very strongly value their pride, honour and reputation. When asked if they had to choose between having a swastika tattooed on their forehead or having their hand cut off, for example, many volunteers actually chose the latter.
Others were presented with the choice of living a long life as a known paedophile or being put to death right away. Researchers found that many people reported preferring death.
The team then carried out their own experiments that involved giving volunteers fake tests designed to uncover hidden racism with the results to be made public.
The second part of their experiments involved offering alternatives to publicising the results, such as submersion of a hand in a bucket of worms - nearly a third chose to go with the worms or other equally gruesome options.
The findings show that people very strongly value their reputations and many are likely to go to extremes to protect their honour if it should be placed at risk.
The research offers some explanation for why so many young people have taken their own lives after being subjected to online smearing and bullying, researchers said.
The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.