Is Hate Worst When It Is Fresh? The Development of Hate Over Time

Temporal Emotional Experiences

Fischer et al. (2018) propose a contradiction between hate as a short-term emotion and hate as a long-term sentiment. Moreover, they claim that “In the last two decades, scholars . . . have resolved this contradiction” (p. 311) by suggesting that some emotions can occur as both a short-term emotion and a long-term sentiment. While I am neither aware of such a conceptual revolution in the past two decades nor of a contradiction that needed to be resolved, I believe that the distinction is basically correct.

Distinguishing between two major types of emotions is not new. The Stoic philosopher Chrysippus (Oatley, 2010) did so, as did Spinoza when he distinguished between passive emotions (passions) and active emotions (affects proper) (1677/1985, Part III, Definitions, 2–3). Martha Nussbaum, for her part, offers a distinction between background and episodic emotions (2001, pp. 69–70; see also Furtak, 2018, pp. 104–106). Similarly, one can distinguish between emotions and sentiments (e.g., Ben-Ze’ev, 2000, pp. 82–86; Deonna & Teroni, 2012, pp. 108–109; Frijda, Mesquita, Sonnemans, & van Goozen, 1991). Such a distinction is indeed valuable. Nonetheless, it does not express contradiction but rather, complexity. The way to proceed is to develop this distinction by exploring the complexity.

In this spirit, Frijda distinguishes between three emotional experiences: emotions, emotional episodes, and sentiments (Frijda et al., 1991). Likewise, Ben-Ze’ev and Krebs (2018) discern three major emotional experiences: acute, extended, and enduring emotions. Acute emotions are brief, almost instantaneous occurrent experiences. Extended emotions involve successive repetitions of occurrent experiences that are felt to belong to the same emotion. Enduring emotions can persist for many years. In addition to their duration and frequency, they involve a qualitatively meaningful development and a dispositional nature that unfolds over time. There are no strict boundaries between these types of emotional experiences (Ben-Ze’ev, 2017a, 2017b, in press).

Fischer et al. (2018) rightly claim that although not all emotions have the potential to become enduring, hate does. I believe that it is the dispositional aspect of hate, love, envy, and grief—each encompassing a broader perspective—that allows them to become enduring emotions. By contrast, more focused emotions, like sexual desire, embarrassment, and disgust, have the potential to become extended, but not enduring, emotions.

External Change and Intrinsic Development

Over time, human experiences can become boring and thus liable to a decrease in emotional intensity. Change is frequently prescribed as a remedy for boredom. Should we then change our romantic partners or the targets of our hate in order to fan the emotional flames of love and hate? In addressing this question, I shall discuss two major types of change: (external) change and (intrinsic) development.

Change is commonly taken to mean becoming different, typically without permanently losing one’s characteristics or essence. Development is a specific type of change that involves a process of improving by expanding or refining. In its full sense, development entails becoming deeper and better. Time becomes both constitutive and constructive.

We can certainly speak about the development of a romantic relation in the sense of improving and becoming deeper (Ben-Ze’ev, in press). Can we speak about the development of negative emotions? It seems that we can, and we indeed speak about the development of negative emotions such as hate, grief, and envy. Such usage involves a narrower sense of development—becoming deeper, but not improving.

The development involved in negative emotions is less profound than that which is involved in positive emotions, such as romantic love. Destroying relations between individuals, which Fischer et al. (2018) correctly claim is associated with hate, is far less complex than building relations, since “Anyone can deconstruct; construction takes some doing” (Hicks, 2003, p. 63). As the major concern of hate is to destroy and that of love is to build, hate is a much simpler activity than love. Hate—unlike love—is thus hardly an achievement.

Emotional Intensity and Profundity

Emotional intensity is a snapshot of an emotional peak at a given moment. In love, this snapshot refers to a momentary degree of passionate, often sexual, desire. Emotional profundity goes beyond mere romantic intensity in that it includes the temporal dimension. External change is highly significant in generating emotional intensity; in emotional depth, familiarity, stability, and development are of greater import. Intensity is a feature of both enduring love and enduring hate. In enduring emotions, intensity declines, while profundity increases. Profundity requires more than merely a pleasant or unpleasant feeling: it calls for meaningfulness (Ben-Ze’ev, in press; Ben-Ze’ev & Krebs, 2018).

The Impact of Lacking Interaction

Fischer et al. (2018, p. 315) argue that “lack of direct interaction amplifies hate because the negative appraisal of the malicious character . . . will never be reappraised or contradicted by other information.”

The issue, however, is more complex. Lack of interaction typically decreases romantic profundity, which is constituted by joint activities. In hate, the impact is often bidirectional. Lack of interaction can indeed prevent reappraising the agent’s negative evaluation, thereby maintaining the hate. Conversely, lack of interaction could make the hated person less central in the agent’s emotional environment, thereby decreasing the hate (Ben-Ze’ev, 2000, Chapter 5).

The two opposing effects are also present with greater interaction. It can decrease hate, as novel, more comprehensive, information changes the initial negative evaluation. Yet, greater interaction may make the conflict more central, leaving the agent without an escape route. Thus, the Roman historian Tacitus informed his audience that hatred is most violent when it is directed toward family. In such a case, we are unable to distance ourselves from the hated person.

Freshness of Hate (and Love)

When it comes to eggs, two aspects are central—taste and nutritional value. And it is when eggs are fresh that these are at their peak. Things get more complicated when love and hate are at stake. The intensity of excitement (the “taste”) is strongest when love is fresh, but the profundity of the connection (the “nutritional value”) is often best when love is mature (Ben-Ze’ev). Hate, for its part, “tastes” worst, that is, its negative intensity is highest, when it is fresh. Yet, when hate is not merely a temporary eruption but a constant feature, it distorts the agent’s behavior and attitudes. As such, its moral value worsens with maturity.