Why do we feel the need to hate what we do not understand?

Question

Are all humans generally good or bad? And at what age can we conciensciously make the decision to hate?

Answer 1

We are only human.

Fear was meant to be a self preservation reflex for humans. Humans are able to interpret that which we do not understand, as impending danger, much like animals. Though we are more psychologically advanced than animals, we are unfortunately flawed in the sense that sometimes, we immediately begin to find distaste in the misunderstood, even without giving it a chance to prove itself.

Racism, sexism, discrimination, segregation, and many other things are directly related to the misunderstanding of select groups of individuals, and ultimately stereotyping of that group. When you meet one black man, you have not met them all. When you meet one woman, you have not met them all.

Of course there are similarities among people of a particular culture, but character and personality should be judged individually and on a single person basis. Judging, we are told, is not up to us to do, but if we are going to do it anyways, we might as well do it with the right mindset, and not that of condemning and hatred.

Psychologists say that at the age of 5, most children are able to decide what is right and wrong, when given tasks. With age, comes more understanding of how things work around us, and how other things and people relate to and affect us. We become able to make decisions for ourselves, at a very young age.

Even when these decisons are small, they do affect us in the long run. When things and people leave impressions on us at a young age, we carry our opinions of them over into adulthood and this influences our likes and dislikes.

For instance, a small child attacked by a dog may grow into an adult who despises dogs. But there are also those out there, who as adults, form opinions on things and people with no evidence supporting their opinion. This is because of many factors, mainly ignorance, though.


Hope my OPINION helped you somewhat. And for the record... I don't hate you. :-P

Answer 2

I don't think we hate everything we don't understand. True, we hate some things we don't understand, but not all things. And I would hesitate to use the word "hate". I don't usually actually hate something or someone until I get to know it or them. Once I've exhausted all other options (of trying to get along or understand) I might then begin to hate.

Humans are basically good because we are born that way. It's Satan's temptations that start the downfall. And his temptation for us to hate good things can start very early.

Answer 3

Because psychologically, when you don't understand about something and nobody really explains it well to you, you naturally as a human being would get piss off by it and at the end of the day if your anger remains in you without any clear solution or explanation at all, hatred takes turn in yourself.

Answer 4

aggression was a clear adaptive advantage until recently.

Answer 5

whatta you mean "we"