Scientists have revealed the true nature of anger and hatred for the first time

Anger and hatred are not just different degrees of "rage," but two independent emotional mechanisms that fulfill different evolutionary functions. This conclusion was reached by an international team of psychologists. The work was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior (EHB).

As the authors noted, in scientific literature and everyday speech, hatred is often viewed as an intensified or more persistent form of anger. However, from an evolutionary perspective, this is debatable. If emotions formed as adaptations to different survival tasks, then they should trigger different behavioral patterns.

"If you confuse anger and hatred, it's easy to misunderstand what a person is trying to achieve in a conflict, and choose an ineffective strategy for resolving it," explained the lead author of the work, Mitchell Landers from the University of California, San Diego.

According to the proposed model, anger performs the function of "negotiation." It arises when an interaction partner underestimates a person's interests, and serves as a signal that such an attitude is unacceptable. Anger motivates confrontation, explanations, and demands for apologies with the aim of restoring cooperation on more favorable terms.

Hatred, on the contrary, is aimed at solving a different problem - interaction with a "toxic" person, whose very existence is perceived as a threat or constant source of harm. In this case, negotiations are meaningless, and the purpose of the emotion is to neutralize the threat: distance oneself, undermine the opponent's social status, or completely exclude them from one's life.

To test this hypothesis, researchers surveyed 725 people from the US and UK. Participants were asked to recall either a person towards whom they feel strong anger without hatred, or someone they hate the most. Then respondents evaluated what actions they would like to take - from attempts at dialogue and reconciliation to completely breaking contact and fantasies about causing harm.

The results were unequivocal. In a state of anger, people preferred strategies for restoring relationships - conversation, explaining their position, expecting apologies. In a state of hatred, desires to avoid the person forever, deprive them of resources, or cause damage predominated. These differences were consistent in both countries.

Additional analysis showed that intensifying anger increases the desire for "bargaining," but when chronically ineffective, anger can develop into hatred. At the same time, an increase in the intensity of hatred, on the contrary, completely suppresses the willingness for dialogue.