Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us

by Will Storr

In the US, a study of male college students found that those from the southern states reacted more aggressively than their northern counterparts after they were shoved and called an ‘asshole’. The psychologists predicted this outcome on the basis of there being an ‘honour culture’ in the south that grew out of the way their forefathers made their living: ‘Herdsmen must be willing to use force to protect themselves and their property when law enforcement is inadequate and when one’s wealth can be rustled away,’ wrote the authors. ‘In the Old South, allowing oneself to be pushed around or affronted without retaliation amounted to admitting that one was an easy mark and could be taken advantage of.’ Evidence in support of their hypothesis was found in the southerners’ saliva, which showed greater spikes in testosterone and cortisol (a hormone implicated in anxiety, arousal and stress), and also in their behaviour in a series of tests that immediately followed the insult. Not only were they more upset than the northerners, who were relatively unaffected, they were more likely to feel their masculinity was in question and to behave in dominant and belligerent ways.