Why Do People Hate?

(cbc.ca)

11 points | by erikhopf 15 hours ago ago

10 comments

  • everdrive 14 hours ago ago

    >'Hate is neither intrinsic nor is it inevitable... it's constructed,' says political scientist

    It's very nice that he believes this, but he couldn't be more incorrect. The fact that there are _nurture_ reasons that hate gets reinforced does not actually mean that its basis is not in _nature_.

    As a comparison, imagine something much less controversial: mothers deeply loving their babies. The mothers are told that they must love their babies, they're shown examples of loving their babies by all of their peers, their own mothers. The hospital just _expects_ that mothers will love their babies! Clearly this is just a social construction, and tabula rasa mothers might have a 50/50 chance of loving their babies.

    This is an intentionally absurd example, but I hope it paints a clear picture; there are lots of ways in which the expectation that mothers love their babies is socially reinforced. But the fact that there are social components to this psychological state does not actually tells us anything about whether or not it's innate.

    This doesn't mean that everything is nature, but people seem to be exceptionally bad at figuring out how nature and nurture might interact. Now, it's clear that nurture can either inhibit or reinforce our innate traits, and with something like outgroup hate it's clear that we'd need to acknowledge that it is impossible to extinguish, but possible to minimize.

  • chriscrisby 14 hours ago ago

    Hate is absolutely natural. Just like steeling or lying, hate doesn’t need to be taught. When people realize they have wants and needs that require competition they become jealous and coveting. That leads to hatred. The only way to fix it is teach people the world doesn’t revolve around them and to do unto others …

  • dreamlayers 14 hours ago ago

    The real problem is that society teaches people to suppress negative emotions. Then someone can harness those suppressed emotions and focus them on something.

  • 13 hours ago ago
    [deleted]
  • add-sub-mul-div 12 hours ago ago

    Roughly half of people react to unfamiliar people and ideas with curiosity, the other half with suspicion. Hate follows from the latter. It's why we have a two-party system. It's like a Conway's law of American psychology.

  • ProllyInfamous 11 hours ago ago

    If you want the realest example I've ever read (and I've read a lot) of an honest criminal hater psychopath [that accepts and understands who he was and why]... read Panzram. TRIGGER WARNING: All the triggers.

    tl;dr: `Hate` is typically caused by family/society: most Monsters are made, not born. It's usually the result of early life trauma developing into ignored addiction[s] (with certain predispositions as exceptions, of course).

    Trivia from Panzram: he helped build Leavenworth Federal while he was serving time for murders/rapes in Leavenworth State; then later served an additional sentence (for murders/rapes) in the prison he helped build.

  • kurtis_reed 14 hours ago ago

    I hate articles like this

    • wagwang 13 hours ago ago

      its one step above horoscopes

  • metalman 8 hours ago ago

    typical (hatefull) cbc style ,take something ubiquitous and normal, and twist it around into a guilt trip

  • kylehotchkiss 13 hours ago ago

    Because people have too much free time and they're bored.