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Do you hate being stuck in traffic? Do you hate it when you arrive at the store to buy something and everything is sold out? Do you hate your neighbor? In general, most of us will utter the word "hate" without thinking about the things we dislike. Experiences, people, situations that we don't like and don't want to repeat. We hate these things. But beyond expressing that we're not a big fan of something, what does it mean to hate something? Why do you hate something?
It's fairly easy to understand the purpose of most emotions. Anger can motivate you to take action. Fear can sustain you. Love can bring joy and perhaps even contribute to the survival of the species if it's romantic love. Even sadness can help you cope with grief and trauma. But why hate?
Have you ever felt like hating something actually benefits you? It has no positive connotations, so why is this seemingly ubiquitous feeling? Why did nature give us this experience? I don't want to drag out this introduction, so let's get straight to the point.
Why do we have emotions?
Before delving into the concept of hate, why not look at emotions in general? After all, hate isn't the only emotion people question. How many of us have ever been in love, experienced heartbreak, and wished we could never experience those feelings again? We have, so to speak, a love-hate relationship with emotions.
Darwin was one of the first to theorize that emotions are part of the survival process. Emotions keep us alive. We've already mentioned that fear can save your life by helping you escape a dangerous situation—it's the fight-or-flight response, which can literally save your life when it's threatened. If you're disgusted by something you ate, you can spit it out and save your life if it's toxic. If you experience love and attraction, you can mate or at least reproduce, and this also sustains the existence of the species.
For Darwin, not all emotions were universal, but some were. These emotions manifested themselves even in isolated groups that could not learn or imitate specific behaviors, but they were expressed in very similar ways, leading him to believe in a deeper connection. By this, he meant that they are present in all people in all societies, no matter how different their habits and beliefs. Joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and surprise appear to be the generally accepted six basic emotions. Anything beyond these may not be present in all societies, or always. Likewise, many other emotions, such as hatred, may exist and be expressed in some societies.
While it's easy to view emotions as purely mental processes, it has been suggested that they have biological, psychological, and social origins. Emotions evoke physiological responses in us, arise from social interactions, whether with other people, animals, or other aspects of the environment, and are psychological because mental processes are involved in their development, regulation, and response.
It's easy to say that an emotion is just a mental reaction to something, but how many of us can say we've never experienced a physical reaction to an emotion? Fear, again, is a great example. You can feel fear throughout your body. It can make you freeze, it can make you nauseous. It can make you sweat, it can make you scream or cry. There are a whole host of measurable biological responses to this one emotion.
Other emotions can trigger similar reactions. If you've ever been in love, you've probably experienced that feeling of elation, the butterflies in your stomach, perhaps a blush on your cheeks simply at the sight of the object of your desire. It happens.
Feelings vs. Emotions
It's worth noting that feelings and emotions, although most people in the modern world use these terms interchangeably, are not the same thing. An emotion is something that can trigger a physiological reaction in your body. Your feelings are your mental experience of that emotion. They are how you interpret and respond to the emotion at the moment you experience it.
Although emotions are universal across species, your feelings will be subjective. This is why some people experiencing grief may joke about it, while others find it completely inappropriate. Everyone experiences the same emotions, but their feelings allow them to process them differently. This can be very beneficial for some people, who are able to process and cope with negative emotions more positively than others. It can benefit not only your mental health but also your physical well-being if you deal with these so-called negative emotions in a healthier way.
Do we need negative emotions?
So, if our emotions are tied to survival, why do we need negative ones? What do hatred and anger do for us that couldn't be done with something that generally improves our well-being? Negative emotions can have a profound impact on our physical health. They can raise blood pressure, lead to anxiety, heart disease, and exacerbate addiction problems.
We've seen that fear, for example, serves a biological function, helping us survive. Fear might motivate you to run from a fire or a gun-wielding maniac. But it's not just the physical aspect of emotions that's important for survival. Learning to cope with negative emotions is also essential for your mental health.
If you lived a life free of negative emotions, you would suffer from them. For most of us, these emotions can't be simply switched off, so they will be there whether we like it or not. But trying to ignore them, suppress them, or otherwise fail to cope with them will only make matters worse. In fact, it can make it harder for you to appreciate positive emotions.
Every negative emotion has an underlying cause. If you ignore it, you're not addressing the underlying cause and, therefore, not solving the underlying problem. It's like turning up the volume on your car stereo to ignore the engine noise. The problem won't just go away simply because you ignore it.
While we've mentioned the impact of negative emotions on health, research shows that it's not the negative emotions themselves that influence your well-being, but how you respond to them. This brings us back to what we discussed earlier about emotions and feelings.
First of all, it's worth noting that we call these negative emotions. Bad feelings. You automatically develop negative associations with hatred, anger, nervousness, and fear. This prepares you to feel bad when you experience these emotions. You train yourself to react negatively. People who react this way tend to experience more anxiety, more depression, and overall less life satisfaction.
Let's consider fear again. Imagine a person afraid of heights standing on a ledge next to another person who has no negative associations with fear. They're experiencing an adrenaline rush. This is the type of person who might skydive or cliff jump for fun. The emotions may be the same, but how they perceive it, how they process it, is almost completely opposite. For this person, it's exciting, thrilling, and desirable. But for someone with a negative reaction, it's terrifying and should be avoided at all costs.
What we consider a negative emotion exists for a reason. It can be a motivation for action. It could be a desire to eliminate something in our lives or a specific situation that triggers this feeling. Something threatening, something interfering, or something that demands attention.
We've now identified at least one cause of most negative emotions. Anxiety can help you prepare for something you're about to overcome, like studying for an exam or asking your boss for a raise. Anger can motivate you to achieve a goal out of sheer spite. But hatred remains a mystery.
We attribute many terrible events in history to hatred. You don't have to travel far in time or space to find places where hatred has caused irreparable damage. It's hard to imagine that such a feeling could have any purpose.
Let's start with what hatred is and why Darwin and others didn't consider it a universal emotion. Rage, fear, disgust, and resentment can all underlie hatred. It's intense and extremely negative. True hatred doesn't have many layers.
In terms of the function of hatred, the action it engenders is to eliminate its source. We want to get rid of what we hate. Hatred is often directed against specific individuals and groups, and historically, this has occurred in very violent and tragic ways. What we hate is perceived as bad, wrong, or threatening in some way.
But there are situations where hatred directed at those who cause suffering can be considered transformative and even beneficial. For example, hating people without good reason is bad, but perhaps hating those who hate people without reason can be considered good if it motivates you to change the situation for the better. It's a very vicious, stupid circle, but that's how it often works. For better or worse, hatred is also a soothing feeling for those who experience it. It confirms their belief in what is right and just in the world.
From the outside, people who commit hate crimes, for example, may be condemned for the wrongness of their actions, but in their minds, their hatred is justified. Therefore, hatred has an aspect of retribution, even if it is completely wrong.
Understanding hatred from a psychological perspective is more complex than it might seem. How can we study hatred in a laboratory setting? It would be unethical to place people in a situation where they are expected to hate each other and act on those emotions.
In the context of group experience, it's essentially linked to something that truly gives meaning to life. This sounds counterintuitive, but it's important to consider the circumstances. Take, for example, a totalitarian society. If you're a citizen living in such a society and fighting against oppression alongside other like-minded individuals, you might all hate the oppressive regime under which you live. This hatred motivates you, as a group, to make the world a better place. In essence, your hatred has given you purpose—for you and for those who share yours.
Of course, this situation isn't ideal. It would be much better to have a purpose in life, driven by passion, joy, love, and all the other positive emotions. But that doesn't change the fact that hatred can also give someone that, and thus allow good things to happen. The problem is that most hatred is misdirected.
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