Gender Norms Within Cultures of Honor

An Interview with Dr. Jarrod Bock

This month, we are honored to spotlight Dr. Jarrod Bock, an Academic Professional Lecturer at the University of Wyoming and a valued Consulting Editor for our flagship journal, Psychology of Men & Masculinities. A prolific researcher, Dr. Bock’s work examines how masculinity norms and state-level characteristics, like firearm accessibility, interact within cultures of honor to influence mental health outcomes and suicide risk.

In his latest study, Dr. Bock has investigated how honor ideology shapes soldiers’ attitudes toward firearm ownership, offering insights into how deeply held cultural values impact health-related behaviors. His research brings to light the importance of culturally informed interventions, especially in honor-based communities where values like protecting one’s reputation and family are central.

We recently spoke with Dr. Bock about his career, insights into masculinity and honor cultures, and his advice for emerging scholars.

Can you tell me about an early or recent professional experience of yours that has helped to shape your path within the field of psychology?

As an undergraduate, I fell in love with psychology after taking a social psychology class. Though the entire field was interesting, the class fostered an early fascination with gender norms and biases. Once in graduate school, I was fortunate enough to have excellent, caring mentors, especially Dr. Ryan Brown. Despite working at a different university, he dedicated time to teaching me the field, which had an immeasurable impact not only on my research and perspective but also on how I try to interact with students. Experiences like this provided a great model of how to be an academic and researcher.

How did you find yourself interested in men and cultures of honor? Are there specific hopes that you have about how your research might impact our field’s understanding of masculinity and honor-based cultures, or public policy?

I was broadly interested in gender norms, but that quickly evolved into a focus on these norms within cultures of honor. Briefly, cultures of honor treat the defense and maintenance of reputation as paramount and, in the U.S., tend to be located in southern and western states. After spending time learning about this cultural framework, many experiences in my life took on new meaning. My ultimate goal is to create effective, culturally attuned interventions that improve lives in honor cultures. For example, while research supports firearm laws to reduce suicides, this approach may face opposition in honor cultures. A more effective strategy could be promoting safe firearm ownership through honor-themed messaging, like protecting one’s family. My hope is that my work can help shape policies that respect and leverage honor values.

What do you find most meaningful about your research in this area? What motivated you to pursue this line of study?

Coming from a family steeped in military service and healthcare, the culture of honor framework gave me a way to study topics that have always been part of my life. Some of my recent work explicitly examines honor culture’s association with military service. For example, I’ve found that individuals from honor-oriented states are more likely to enlist in the military and that veterans in these states have higher suicide rates. Conversations with friends and family in the military have been formative for my approach to this topic, and my hope is that my work can improve lives. The state-level differences in mental health outcomes between honor-oriented and dignity-oriented states are stark. Among non-Hispanic Whites, suicide rates in honor-oriented states are significantly higher. My goal is to reduce these disparities and inspire others to consider cultural factors in mental health.

As a researcher in the field of men and masculinities, what do you look for in an ideal manuscript when reviewing for journals?

I’ve refined my approach to reviewing over the past few years. I now focus more on the potential of articles rather than trying to prevent ‘bad work’ from being published. I view the review process as a dialogue and aim to pose questions to authors. For an ideal manuscript, I look for authors to consider multiple theoretical frameworks or alternative explanations, which shows openness to feedback. This is essential for scientific dialogue—an honest conversation about the merits and limitations of research.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author in the field of men and masculinities studies?

My advice echoes one of my baseball coach’s favorite phrases: score early, score often. Momentum is crucial in academic life, and it’s important to develop strong research habits early on. I encourage aspiring authors to read widely and often to develop ideas and a broad understanding of the field. This is especially critical in studying men and masculinities, where experiences are highly diverse. Viewing men’s experiences through an intersectionality framework, even without testing every identity intersection, can deepen one’s appreciation for the complexity of masculinities.

Jarrod E. Bock, Ph.D.

Academic Professional Lecturer, Social Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Wyoming
Jarrod.Bock@uwyo.edu