I guess, Kirk, define hatred. If it is an intense dislike, then probably it is a defense mechanism. Maybe the question to ask is whether some people are predisposed to "like everyone." Maybe that is the more unusual scenario. In the wild, such people would have been quite vulnerable, I would expect. Nowadays, the image of "liking everyone" is perhaps more done for show.

There are also psychopaths, but I think they simply lack any sense of morality, more than having an actual dislike or hate. It's a subtraction of emotion, IMO.

Presumably a xenophobic predisposition would have had survival value for hominids and prehominids, when groups of them competed for scarce resources, and therefore could have been weakly selected for. So traces of such predispositions may still exist amongst us.

I guess, Kirk, define hatred. If it is an intense dislike, then probably it is a defense mechanism. Maybe the question to ask is whether some people are predisposed to "like everyone." Maybe that is the more unusual scenario. In the wild, such people would have been quite vulnerable, I would expect. Nowadays, the image of "liking everyone" is perhaps more done for show.

There are also psychopaths, but I think they simply lack any sense of morality, more than having an actual dislike or hate. It's a subtraction of emotion, IMO.

Hatred is a feeling or way of attitude not liking.

Not all issues genetically predisposed.

Am not sure of this but I do believe pride may be traced to genetics and this could also be the reason why some are hated for their egos. (NOT PROVED SCIENTIFICALLY)

Thanks for your invitation but genetically, I am not sure as I have not looked at hatred from that angle. Karl's explanation is interesting from the school of genetics. Yet, I know environmental factors play a key role.

Karl's answer is intriguing, however I would rather indicate external factors as prologed traumatic experiences, extreme deprovation of positive values patterns as kindness, acceptance, compassion and love during early human life.

Hatred is an emotion , like all the others we probably hard wired for it. Only catch is demonstration of it that makes a difference ...

Culturally more than genetically

I would say that our "fallen" human nature has that tendency to both love and hate. Depending on our experiences, we may tend to one more than the other if we do not try to overcome the latter, perhaps by an examination of conscience or sacramental confession.

Best regards,

Debra

I do not know if there is a hatred gene. I will follow the thread with curiosity.

Is it possible that some people are genetically predisposed to hatred?

If we see the advancement in genomics, then yes we can link that hatred phenomenon with genetic predisposition; but, from our personal experiences, we know that a person who is preaching love, harmony and humanity could have children that could be criminal involving in hate and other heinous crimes. On the other side, the children of some criminals, could become the persons in future preaching love, harmony and humanity.

Genetics have to answer many things; still it does not have all answers.

No, My opinion that hatred is the result of the failure to understand.

I'm not sure I have an answer to this, but I would suggest that you look at Barbara Oakley's book Pathological Altruism (Oxford 2012). The book is excellent and raises important questions about the nature of altruism and whether or not it is always positive. Part of this is related to how you define hatred, of course. I'm not sure I agree with the above comment that hatred is the result of the failure to understand. I think I understand what Hitler was doing pretty well, and I clearly feel hate toward what was done by the Nazis. It's not just dislike or disagreement. There is an emotional component, as well. In any case, I think Oakley's book would be useful to you in thinking about this question.

Certainly, BIG NO.

For some time, an individual may go through the gray episode of life.

The implications of this question are profound. If we reject the premise of dispositional or trait hostility then society can hold people accountable for their attitudes and actions, punishing those who violate culturally defined rules of conduct. If we accept the premise of dispositional or trait hostility then society must adjust its responses to hostility either in the direction of tolerating the disposition or in the direction of ostracizing individuals.

A Hate gene or expression of survival instinct activation ? Interesting.Its a observed phenomenan in most of life forms. Means ? not a learned behaviour or environmental influence only .Would Paramecium hate seeing Ameoba around.needs more defination hate, hostility ,displeasure and its relation to pack mentality resource. When is hate right and when it is wrong, social judgement.Hate me not much as love conquers all.

It is worth noting that apathy (the absence of passion) is the antithesis of both hate and love; both of which are passions

Hatred is very unlikely to be genetic, rather it is a reaction when one feels threatened or not understood.

I also think that the property of hatred does not require genetic explanations. First of all, our genes are very similar, and this small difference is unlikely to explain huge differences in behavior axis along "love-hate".

I will try to give explanation for a priori identical people based on random sequence of events in their life. Suppose that people learn to respond reciprocally in their interactions. Suppose that initially they are neutral, and thus are able to evolve towards all spectrum of final states between "loving all" and "hating all".

Suppose that there are certain % of people around whose dominant behavior is either to hate or to love. If a person first meets bad people who are doing bad to him, he/she is likely to develop hating behavior. If we take into account emotional aspects, even few negative shocks in childhood can be responsible for this. Other people are evolving in the opposite direction of love. There are few people (like Christ) who are able to respond by love to bad actions towards them. Most are like I have described above.

I think Yuri raises an important point that genes are expressed in relation to an environment or context. In other words, there may be tendencies toward being more love-oriented or more hate-oriented, but the actual way these emotions pan out in an individual are highly related to the environment in which the individual matures. Perhaps another way to think about this would be to ask about variations in the capacity to empathize. It would seem that the capacity to empathize is one of the things that leads to high levels of cognition in humans, but we do not all share that ability at the same degree. Greater or lesser capacities to empathize would obviously lead to variations in how people react to others and, thus, whether or not they react positively (love) or negatively (hate). I'm not sure I'm very comfortable with words like love and hate, in any case, because they are culturally contingent emotional categories.

@ Kirk Yes but I think the impact of genetic predisposition pales in comparison to environmental and developmental experiences.

Emotion may be envisaged from a neurobiological perspective - a neural signature characterised by a recognised pattern of synaptic/network activation occurring in the context of a particular 'cocktail' of neurotransmitters. Theoretically, genetic polymorphisms would predispose certain individuals to tendencies towards certain neural signatures rather than others. However, having said that, experiences in early childhood, when neural plasticity is at its highest, is more likely to play a greater role, as stereotypical experiences reactivate and sculpt the relevant neural circuitry, so its more likely to be consolidated and replayed in future circumstances. This may form the basis for the generation of certain personality traits.