What is your opinion of the causal relationship that Alter describes between culture and response to threats?

1. Crosscultural Variation
In your reading for group work this week, Alter describes a series of experiments by Nisbett and Cohen (pdf pages 16-19) on the way that employers, journalists, and college-aged men from southern, western, and northern states responded to threatening situations and/or descriptions of violence and how their responses related to the “culture of honor” in each geographic region.
What is your opinion of the causal relationship that Alter describes between culture and response to threats? Do you buy his story? Why or why not? Are there cultural factors other than geographic region that you think are important to take into account?
None of the Nisbett and Cohen studies include the Midwest as a region of interest. How do you think Midwesterners would respond to threats to their honor or forgive violence in the name of honor? Why? (Feel free to make your comparison to just one of the three studies by Nisbett and Cohen that Alter describes.)

2. Does the figure Ching K’o meet your expectations for a “knight/xia”? Why or why not?

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