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Abstract
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Hate, defined here as intense dislike that encourages the elimination of others, involves dehumanization, or the denial of human qualities to others. Despite the importance of understanding the neuropsychiatry of hate, clinicians and investigators have devoted relatively little effort to its study. A review of the existing, albeit limited, literature suggests that hate depends on sufficiently dehumanizing others in order to permit their elimination. A potential brain mechanism for hate appears to involve an "animalistic" infrahumanization that results in withholding empathy from the devalued targets; this mechanism may be mediated by the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) (1). What follows is an attempt to support this hypothesis.
As hate crimes, exemplified by horrific shootings at houses of worship and other public venues, continue to plague the United States, neurologists and psychiatrists may have an increasingly important role in elucidating the brain mechanisms that underlie hateful behavior. Although hatred is a major scourge of humankind, there is limited consensus on the nature of this phenomenon. There is disagreement as to whether hate is even an emotion. While some define hate as a deep, enduring, intense emotion (2), others consider it a long-lasting attitude or disposition of intense dislike punctuated by negative emotions such as anger (3). Whether emotion or disposition, there is additional disagreement on whether hate necessarily leads to an impulse to socially, psychologically, or physically eliminate its target. Nevertheless, hate that leads to negative impulses toward others is the source of much human tragedy.
Given the controversy over the definition of hate, it is not surprising that there are a wide range of theories that attempt to explain hateful behavior. First, there are theories that reflect social psychological principles such as the need to belong and conform to social groups, pressures, norms, and rules. These social influences promote compliance with hateful behavior through deindividuation and group anonymity, diffusion of responsibility, passive compliance, blind obedience to authority, and ingroup versus outgroup distinctions (4). Second, some personality theories view certain people as being predisposed to hateful behavior, having a negative view of others, and possessing personality attributes that include authoritarianism and social dominance (5). These people homogenize all members of an outgroup and attribute deficient and negative character traits to them; thus, hateful individuals devalue and morally exclude outgroup members. Finally, there are direct theories of hate, such as Sternberg's duplex theory (6). This theory proposes that hate involves a negation of intimacy, a negation of passion, and a negation of commitment, which are derived through stories that involve prototypes of targets with negative characteristics. The major feature that all of these theories seem to have in common is the need to dehumanize others, which is best seen as a cognitive heuristic that denies the human qualities of a hated "them."
Language: en |