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Individual differences in masculine honor beliefs are related to men’s aggressive responses to threats and insults. We predicted individual differences in masculine honor beliefs would be associated with greater drives to achieve muscularity as a way for men to become hard targets who repel threats. Across 3 studies we found higher levels of endorsement of masculine honor beliefs were associated with greater degrees of muscularity concerns (Studies 1 and 2) and greater beliefs that men lift weights to provide a means for defense against threats and to intimidate others (Study 2). Furthermore, we found levels of men’s endorsement of masculine honor beliefs are palpable, such that observers can reliably predict these levels after a brief social interaction (Study 3). Thus, the beliefs that men must protect themselves, their reputations, their families, and their property against threat and insult, with physical aggression if necessary, may compel men to make themselves hard targets who ward off those who would otherwise threaten, insult, or challenge them without having to fight.

We examined the relationships between masculine honor beliefs (MHB) and women’s endorsement of various rejection-related behaviors, as well as both men’s and women’s perceptions of men’s aggressive responses after being romantically rejected by a woman who uses an avoidant/deceptive rejection technique. In Study 1, women with stronger MHB were more likely to endorse their own use of an avoidant/deceptive rejection technique and expressed fewer expectations of men aggressing against them after their overt rejection. In Study 2, men with stronger MHB perceived a woman’s use of deception to reject a man’s unwanted romantic advance as a greater threat to the rejected man’s honor, while women with stronger MHB expressed greater expectations of retaliatory aggression from the rejected man, regardless of the use of deception. These results suggest women who adhere to masculine honor norms may be in a difficult predicament when faced with rejecting men and may choose to mitigate the honor threat to the rejected man by using avoidance/deception to avert his unwanted romantic advance to avoid potential retaliatory aggression.

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