Have you experienced this southern "culture of honor"?

I was listening to a podcast recently that mentioned this study, which describes the “culture of honor” in the southern U.S.

Here is the abstract…

“Three experiments examined how norms characteristic of a “culture of honor” manifest themselves in the cognitions, emotions, behaviors, and physiological reactions of southern White males. Participants were University of Michigan students who grew up in the North or South. In 3 experiments they were insulted by a confederate who bumped into the participant and called him an “asshole”. Compared with northerners – who were relatively unaffected by the insult – southerners were (a) more likely to think their masculine reputation was threatened, (b) more upset (as shown by a rise in cortisol levels), (c) more physiologically primed for aggression (as shown by a rise in testosterone levels), (d) more cognitively primed for aggression, and (e) more likely to engage in aggressive and dominant behavior. Findings highlight the insult-aggression cycle in cultures of honor, in which insults diminish a man’s reputation and he tries to restore his status by aggressive or violent behavior.”

Northerners who have spent time in the south – have you experienced this? What happened?

Does this provide some explanation for what people generally describe when they say that the south is “more polite”? Is the cost for not being polite just too costly?