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Why do we hate? From an evolutionary perspective I having trouble seeing why having the ability to hate something would be advantageous for survival in fact it seems like it would counterproductive to species survival, the only reason I can come up for hating is it helps us avoid doing

unpleasant and destructive things like sickness, eating rotten food, etc.

Make life simple. Hate EVERYTHING.

I suppose it might be to do with flight or fight. Like you said, when you hate things you try to avoid them. In previous years people may have hated the sight of sabre tooth tigers, so would try to avoid them.


Nowadays, hate is often overused, there is a difference between non liking something and hating something, although people don't always make that distinction.

Its not hate per say. One just becomes mentally "allergic" to it. Reference my sig

Hate is a powerful force for social cohesion (Us Vs Them) so it would have played an important role in early, largely prehistoric, societies. Its a bit of a liability now of course.

Personally I have a hard time hating anything. There are lots of things that I fundamentally disagree with but I don't think that really classifies as hate.

Off the top of my head the things I can think of that I genuinely hate are bad comedy and my job.


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 Palindrome wrote:
Hate is a powerful force for social cohesion (Us Vs Them) so it would have played an important role in early, largely prehistoric, societies.

But wouldn't be easier to cooperate than fight each other? That's why hate doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I am of the opinion that this particular human emotion has derived from "fight or flight"....in the sense that you can start hating that which you flee from, or you can start to hate that which you fight against.

Hate, so far, seems to only be a human emotion....however, love and affection (as well as compassion) can be seen in other animals.

So....will humanity teach other species how to hate?

 TheMeanDM wrote:


So....will humanity teach other species how to hate?

Michael Vick and his former Pitbulls would say that's already been/being done.

 Cheesecat wrote:
Why do we hate? From an evolutionary perspective I having trouble seeing why having the ability to hate something would be advantageous for survival in fact it seems like it would counterproductive to species survival, the only reason I can come up for hating is it helps us avoid doing

unpleasant and destructive things like sickness, eating rotten food, etc.

Erm.. I guess that's probably it.

'Repulsion' might be a better word for it. As sapient creatures, we have an aversion to things that can be harmful to us or our social groupings. I suppose it can be a conscious thing (that other tribe killed some of mine, I'm going to write a nasty song about them) or at an instinctive level. Like you say, the smell of spoiled food, or an immediate threat from something dangerous.

It's obviously 'productive' to species survival otherwise.. well, we wouldn't have the capacity for it and be talking about it now!

The feeling "hate" though can be a motivator.

 TheMeanDM wrote:
I am of the opinion that this particular human emotion has derived from "fight or flight"....in the sense that you can start hating that which you flee from, or you can start to hate that which you fight against.

Hate, so far, seems to only be a human emotion....however, love and affection (as well as compassion) can be seen in other animals.

So....will humanity teach other species how to hate?

I'm pretty certain Elephants can hate and it seems that some humans taught it to them by butchering their herds and leaving them mentally scarred. Some elephants hate humans and will murder humans in revenge; I recall one instance in India, where a certain elephant would sneak up to houses in the night, rip a hole in the wall and drag the people out and beat them to death. I believe that in Uganda, there are similar instances and elephants will gore rhinos to death due to the mental trauma they have suffered, just like with humans.

What is hatred for? I think a lot of it has to do with protection of resources which is possibly a throwback to a much earlier time when land, food and people were resources too precious to share. Hatred allows you to bypass your normal sympathy for your fellow man in order to defend what is yours or at least, what you perceive as yours. It would be the counterpoint to the innate desire to sacrifice yourself for others, your children for example. I would say, it's one of those emotions that allows or forces you not to let other people walk all over you which, in a modern setting, (similar to how we have a taste for fatty foods which is now leading to an obesity problem because so many fatty foods are freely available) has no shut off and leads to some terrible things being done.

You could ask why we have any emotion. I read a theory a long time ago the emotions are sort of like personality programs that help us make decisions faster by short-circuiting past certain unimportant options. Fear for example gives us very limited options, most of them being "run away" and "hide", Anger gives us the option to be aggressive and fight. Both these emotions are likely ancient. Few animals live in cooperative groups like us, so fighting for what is yours is probably quite important in an evolutionary sense. The more angry and aggressive the better.

In a philosophical sense, hate is the counterpart of love. Without hate, love has no meaning, and vice versa. This is why hate often brings people together. Nothing unites people faster than a shared hatred. Even formerly bitter enemies will put their differences aside an become brothers in the face of something they both hate more than each other. This is why people are often more patriotic and leaders most popular during wartime.

When you love something, you can be fearful of anything that threatens it. The most pro-active way of dealing with that fear is to turn it to hate and do something about it.

So you might love your tribe, and be fearful of what might happen to your tribe if the other tribe takes over the fishing hole. So you hate the other tribe. Meanwhile the other tribe are all hippies who know nothing of your hate, and so when you swoop in and attack them you give them a right proper thrashing. You control the fishing hole, and your tribe prospers while the hippies flounder. And in this way your genetic mutation to hate grows and expands through humanity.


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 Cheesecat wrote:
But wouldn't be easier to cooperate than fight each other? That's why hate doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The most successful genes aren't the ones that make life easier for everyone. They're the ones that help individuals flourish and pass on their genes. That means some combination of co-operation that benefits the overall tribe, and individual action that advantages the individual.

Hate is the most powerful emotion humans possess. It causes people to work together against a common enemy and makes them cohesive as Palindrome mentioned. People can go to far more extremes over a longer period when driven by hate. Hate is also easily accessed , when a competitor kills your family, hate can drive someone for the whole of their life. I'd say that love can drive someone to monstrous physical feats in a short (usually one off) period, but hate can gain an increased level of prowess for an extended period. I know what I'd put my money on .

Hate was very useful in all parts of human development , from tribal all the way to now. If someone has a resource and you want it ,any form of raiding activity is going to generate hate, which means motivating people for the next round of resource gains is easier.
Hate makes control of the population easier for a canny ruler.

Let's not fool ourselves, animals can hate, they do not have to be taught it by humans. Watch any family group of primates and if there is an extremely bad leader or vindictive individual you can see hate manifest. Humans just find it hard to notice the signs in non primates. I saw a nature documentary which featured a female lioness who murdered the prides cubs every year till she was found out, if that's not hate I don't know what is. Humans and animals are not different, it's time to drop that church dogma inspired stuff. They feel all the same emotions we do. Primates and elephants can carry round or hang round the corpses of dead offspring for days.

On cooperation between humans, humans only co-operate until someone realises that what they are trading for they can get for free after conquering , which in a survival sense makes much more sense.More resources = stronger tribe = more resources.

It isn't a pretty idea, but love conquers all is just movie inspired BS.

 Jihadin wrote:
Make life simple. Hate EVERYTHING.

It keeps us warm.

Envy
Jealousy
Fear
Pain

All these are excellent motivators to hate.

Sounds like Frazzleds' bedroom is a fun place. * I didn't see the last line, however I let my comment stand as valid.

To quote one of the finest doctors I've ever heard of: "Don’t say hate, gandhi, you keep throwing that word around so much it’s lost all of its meaning. Now I have to find another word stronger than hate to describe how I feel about others.

I mega-loathe you all.

Good day."

Anyone who gets the reference will receive absolutely nothing, free of charge.

I hate hate

Scrubs.

Was used a bit in Afghanistan

If you were locked up all day and your only human contact, I can see how watching Scrubs would be torture (advance interrogation techniques)

Bullockist wrote:
If you were locked up all day and your only human contact, I can see how watching Scrubs would be torture (advance interrogation techniques)

Detention Center on Bagram AF

Other then that
No comment

 Jihadin wrote:

Bullockist wrote:
If you were locked up all day and your only human contact, I can see how watching Scrubs would be torture (advance interrogation techniques)

Detention Center on Bagram AF

Other then that
No comment

I think I could literally watch Scrubs all day and be like 'let's get some more of this torture tomorrow, slick.' I don't say that a lot about repetitive-media torture, but I think on this one I would be fine.

Lots of Disney movies.....lots and lots of Disney movies.

 44Ronin wrote:
I hate hate

I hate hate haters.

SNAP!

I suppose hate could be an evolutionary motivator to eliminate a long term threat. Most animals only react to an immediate threat. Hate can keep you on guard to things that have wronged you in the past.


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 Palindrome wrote:
Hate is a powerful force for social cohesion (Us Vs Them) so it would have played an important role in early, largely prehistoric, societies. Its a bit of a liability now of course.

I think that's a good theory too.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
Make life simple. Hate EVERYTHING.

It keeps us warm.

Envy
Jealousy
Fear
Pain

All these are excellent motivators to hate.

Everyone listen to the wise old Sith

I do enjoy some Hate.

Why do we hate?

'Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate... leads to suffering, and the Dark Side...'

(and frankly I'm surprised no one has thrown in that reference yet!)

On a more serious note, as marked by others, the same could be said of any emotion. Hate, fear, love, anger, it's all evolutionary, I think. Primal instincts we've developed enough to give name to and attempt to categorise.

Hate isn't a real emotion, imo.

There is love, like and dislike. While there is a distinction between love and like, hate is a term we've come up with for a severe dislike.

I've come to that conclusion based on the observation that it's far easier for most people's "hate" to eventually downgrade to a mere "dislike" than it is to "love" many things.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Hate isn't a real emotion, imo.

There is love, like and dislike. While there is a distinction between love and like, hate is a term we've come up with for a severe dislike.

I've come to that conclusion based on the observation that it's far easier for most people's "hate" to eventually downgrade to a mere "dislike" than it is to "love" many things.

Hate is real bro... very real.

Love/Hate are often times described the opposite sides of the same coin.

The power of both can transcend reasoning.