The Biological Purpose of Hate

I was just curious as to the function of hate in the human brain. Does it serve any useful purpose or is it just a genetic flaw? Alot of the time I seem to be overwhelmed by how much I hate this world. Id really appreciate any answers.

Hi,

Hate certainly isn't just a flaw, in my opinion. It allows us to know who/what to avoid. Think of pain as the physical form of hate (with hate being the mental form of pain). When we are physically hurt by something, we know to stay away from that thing in the future. So, if we meet somebody that we hate, we know to stay away from them in the future too.

A hatred for the entire world is big problem though, because then you have nowhere to turn to and the person may very well become depressed. Others lash-out at the world though, and get their asses locked-up in prison.

Kevin

Iv always thought hate was a learned emotion. Anger to me would be the emotional equivalent to physical pain. Anger tells you to avoid the person or object. But hate has a much more deeper purpose. Hate drives us to think and devise ways in which to destroy or harm the thing which we hate. According to the studies I read it resembles love in neural activity.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003556

If this is accurate I would think of myself as the Romeo of Hate. There is no thing , living or inanimate, which I cannot find a reason to hate with all my heart. I hate the light for it shows how ugly I am. I hate the darkness for it obscures my path. I hate life because It can only end in death and pain. I hate death because it would strip me of everything I had ever learned.

Hate IS a flaw - it is a flaw where our mind was tainted with attachments and worldly desires - and our peace and love of the mind was replaced with ego and want.... Hate can be reversed and over the course of this year I feel I no longer hate

Love you,
hunted (lower-case H)

hunted wrote:Hate IS a flaw - it is a flaw where our mind was tainted with attachments and worldly desires - and our peace and love of the mind was replaced with ego and want.... Hate can be reversed and over the course of this year I feel I no longer hate

Love you,
hunted (lower-case H)

That's certainly a nice thought, but hate is an inherent quality of humans. As such, it can't really be eliminated. It's nnice to think that everyone in the world would be nice to each other, but not everyone in the world is like you and I, hunted. As such, there will alwys be wars and stuff like that, because hatred is real and it's happening right now as we speak.

I was taught hate is a secondary emotion caused by fear.

Can it be that hate is a defense mechanism?

I hate certain people because I fear pain from their actions.
Working on analyzing the fear helps me eventually neutralize my hate.

People also hate others because they are different - is there fear involved here? It doesn't appear that there is, to me anyway. Who knows why the 'hate' emotion evolved, but it certainly can be useful is situations where we are under threat from someone. Hmmm, whilre thinking about it now, if we have intense hatred in our minds, our adrenal glands are typically also producing adrenaline. So, I guess it relates to - yeh - a protection/defense mechanism.

I'm off to bed - it's 1AM here.
Night superstar

Good night Kevin, nice dreams.

On topic:

Hate is definitely related to frustration. It stems from a frustration.

If you want to get rid of hate, analyze your deep, personal frustrations.

Frustration, by my definition, is the inability to make our wishes come true ( of whatever sort).

Hate is a passion, to use archaic language. It is no surprise that the study noted similarities between both love and hate and what areas of the brain are stimulated.
The study focused on individuals, not groups or nations. Hate is personal, as I have experienced. It serves no good purpose that I can see, at least rationally. It feeds a need, just as "eros" does.

The terms are too vague. Contempt and infatuation would be better language to use.

Love and Hate are poetic terms. They may reveal a truth as "poetry" often does, but those terms are too subjective and have cultural and religious implications that don't help in understanding.

vinceh4 wrote:Love and Hate are poetic terms. They may reveal a truth as "poetry" often does, but those terms are too subjective and have cultural and religious implications that don't help in understanding.

Indeed, and Def Leppard recognised this in their song: When Love & Hate Collide. By the way, what do you mean by 'feeding a need', just like Eros?