Understanding and Overcoming Hate
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  • Understanding Hate
    • Introduction
    • What is Hate? >
      • Hate as an Emotion >
        • Papers: Hate as an Emotion
      • Hate as a Belief >
        • Papers: Hate as Belief
      • Hate as an Act >
        • Papers: Hate as an Act
      • Hate as a Policy >
        • Papers: Hate as Policy
    • The Roots of Hate >
      • Early Imprints >
        • When Needs are Not Met
        • Papers; Not Meeting Needs
      • What Are We Doing To Our Children? >
        • Children in Dire Circumstances
      • Effects of Trauma and Abuse >
        • Papers: Stress Effects
        • Papers: Trauma Abuse Effects
        • Links: Stress, Trauma Research
      • Causes and Effects of Bullying
      • Trauma, bigotry, violence linked
      • Authoritarian Upbringings >
        • Papers: Authoritarian Roots
        • Papers: SDO and Authoritarianism
      • Absolutism and Insularity >
        • Papers: Absolutism
      • Papers: Early Roots of Prejudice
      • Impaired Cognition >
        • Papers: Impaired Cognition
      • The Violent Brain >
        • Papers: Violent Brain
      • Roots of Violence and Cruelty >
        • Chart: Powderkeg Formula
        • Papers: Roots of Violence
        • Articles and Blog Posts
      • Ghosts of the Past >
        • Ripples of revenge
        • Papers: Ghosts of the Past
    • How Hate Manifests >
      • Chart
      • Everyday Hate >
        • Papers: Social Rejection
        • Papers: Bullying
      • Social Injustice and Discrimination >
        • Papers: Discrimination
        • Papers: Inequality
        • Articles: Inequality Effects
        • Articles: Cognitive Exhaustion
        • "White" Privilege
      • Stereotyping and Caricature >
        • Papers: Stereotyping
        • Stereotyping
      • Prejudice, Racism and Bigotry >
        • Articles and Blog Posts
        • Papers: Prejudice Racism
        • Papers: Skin color and face
        • Papers: InGroup Outgroup
        • Papers: Implicit Bias
        • Evolutionary Issues >
          • More blog posts
      • Dehumanizing >
        • Views about the outsider
        • Papers: Dehumanizing
      • Hate Crimes >
        • Papers: Hate Crimes
      • Hate Groups >
        • Links: Hate Groups Research
        • Papers and news: Hate Groups
      • Abuse of Power >
        • Papers: Abuse of Power
        • Evil Men: Tyrants, Dictators
        • Blogs and news
        • Articles: SDO and RWA
      • Xenophobia >
        • Papers: Xenophobia
      • Collective Rage >
        • Papers: Collective Violence
      • Extremism >
        • Papers: Terrorism
        • Papers: Extremism
      • Cruelty on Mass Scale >
        • Links
        • Papers: Cruelty on mass scale
    • Hate in the News >
      • News: Hate in America
      • News: Hate Trends Worldwide
      • Extremism: Current Trends: News
      • Authoritarianism Trends
    • Group Influence >
      • Search for Belonging >
        • Papers: Search for Belonging
      • Social Cognition and Learning >
        • Papers: Fairness
        • Papers: Social Cognition
      • Group Think >
        • Papers: Intergroup Dynamics
        • Papers: Group Think
      • Status and Stigma >
        • Papers: Status and Stigma
      • Conformity >
        • Papers: Conformity
      • Obedience and Compliance >
        • Papers: Obedience
      • Bystander Effect
    • Social Defenses >
      • Papers: Social Defenses
      • System Justification >
        • Papers: System Justification
      • Projection >
        • Papers: Projection
      • Denial >
        • Papers: Denial
        • Examples of Denial
        • Papers: Denialism
      • Attribution and Comparison >
        • Attribution Fallacies
        • Papers: Attribution
      • Cognitive Dissonance >
        • Papers: Cognitive Dissonance
    • Fanning the Flames >
      • Media and Persuasion
      • Papers: Persuasion
      • Papers: Indoctrination
      • Papers: Hate Speech
      • Papers: Attitude change
      • News: Cyberhate
      • Links
      • Media Effects in the News
      • Persuasion: Blog Posts and Articles
    • How We Fool Ourselves >
      • Mechanisms: Cognitive Biases and Heuristics >
        • Papers: Brain Tricks
        • Biases: Blogs and Articles
        • Biases organized
      • On Being Wrong
      • Probability and Decision-Making Biases >
        • Papers and articles
      • Memory Distortions >
        • Papers: Memory illusions
      • Perceptual Illusions >
        • Papers: Perceptual Illusions
        • Illusions: Blog Posts and Articles
      • Self-Deception >
        • Papers: Self-deception
      • Delusion, Confabulation >
        • Papers: Delusions
        • Papers: False Beliefs
      • Conspiracy Theories
      • Papers: Neural mechanisms mystical states
      • Brain and Spirituality: Articles
    • Brain and Belief >
      • What is a Belief? >
        • Papers: Belief Formation
        • Papers: Automaticity
      • Perception and Processing >
        • Papers: Perception
      • Salience and Tagging >
        • Papers: Salience
        • Papers: Essentialism
      • Creating Categories >
        • Papers: Categorizing
      • Cognitive Unconscious
      • Embodied Cognition >
        • Papers: Embodied Cognition
      • Emotion Cognition Interplay >
        • Papers
      • Creating a Story about the World >
        • Papers: Story Creation
      • Investing in Cherished Beliefs >
        • Papers
      • Identifying Self with Belief >
        • Papers
      • Search for Meaning >
        • Papers: Meaning
    • Search for Certainty >
      • Dogmatic Beliefs
      • Belief Perseverance
      • Papers: Feeling of Knowing
      • Papers: Rigid Dogmatic thinking
    • Index: All Biases, Distortions and Influences
  • Overcoming Hate
    • Overview of Topics
    • Introduction
    • Prevention >
      • Meeting Formative Needs of Children >
        • Papers: Child and Brain Development
        • Papers: nurturing, attachment bonding
        • Links: Development
      • Promoting Parental readiness >
        • Papers
        • Links: Helping Parents
      • Supporting Healthy Families >
        • Papers
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        • Papers
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        • Roots of Morality
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        • Papers: Roots of Morality and Conscience
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        • Papers: Emotional Intelligence
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          • Papers: Critical Thinking
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          • Papers: Metacognition
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          • Papers: Perceiving Bias
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          • Papers: Creative Thinking
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          • Papers: Mindfulness
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          • Papers: Interoception
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          • Papers: Fluid Intelligence
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      • Whole Child Learning >
        • Papers
    • Intervention >
      • Social Support and Inclusion >
        • Papers: Social Support
      • Helping Children in Dire Conditions >
        • Papers: Helping children
      • Preventing Violence and Bullying >
        • Anti-bullying programs and resources
        • Helping At-Risk Kids
        • Papers on helping kids
      • Standing Up To Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry >
        • Papers: Reducing Prejudice
        • Articles: Reducing Prejudice
        • Papers: Stopping hate crimes
        • Papers: Offsetting Extremism
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        • Hatebraker Examples: News
      • Training Our Protectors >
        • Papers: Training Protectors
      • Healing the Hurt >
        • Papers: Healing Hurt
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      • Educating Our Leaders >
        • Papers: Educating Leaders
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        • Papers: Resolving Conflict
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      • Israel-Palestine >
        • Papers: Israel-Palestine
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        • Links: Human Rights
        • Papers: Human Rights
      • Healing the Ghosts of the Past >
        • Papers: Reconciliation
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        • Papers: Restorative Justice
      • Confronting Mass Atrocities >
        • Papers: Confronting War Crimes
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      • Charters and Declarations
      • Slideshow: Social Advances
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  • Resources
    • Academic Papers: Topic Index
    • Background: Sciences Related to Hate >
      • Related Sciences of Hate
      • Social Psychology Subtopics
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      • Links: Brain Mapping
      • Process of Science
      • What is Good Science?
      • Links: Understanding Science
      • Papers: About Good Science
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    • Timelines of Knowledge >
      • Index of all Pioneers
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    • Researchers and Experts >
      • Developmental Foundations
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      • Search for Meaning
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      • Search for Certainty
      • Ghosts of the Past
      • Breaking Cycle of Hate: Solutions
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      • Books: Topic Overview >
        • Development
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        • Brain and Belief
        • Tricks of Mind
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        • Overcoming Prejudice, Racism
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What is a Belief?

  • A mental state in which an idea or opinion is accepted as true
  • An internalized interpretation or explanation for an experience or event
  • A subjective representation of an aspect of reality 
  • Beliefs are mental structures needed to interpret and organize data
  • Beliefs can be symbolic and intellectual—or based on faith, a sense of “rightness” and imbued with emotional charge
  • Beliefs may be based on erroneous assumptions and still turn out to be accurate or partially correct

Descriptions
  • Beliefs are mental constructs that provide substance, content, context, and meaning to our lives.
  • Beliefs come in many forms: as ideas, images and thoughts, and also as more elaborate schemas, including highly sophisticated abstract theories. 
  • There are many levels of belief, from innate perceptual responses to paradigm models that help us interpret reality and help our brains navigate the world around us.
  • Belief can occur after deliberate, systematic thinking or can occur instantaneously with a “click” of “rightness” or in any other time frame   
  • The source of the belief may be forgotten or unrecognized.
  • Our "sense of self" can become over-identified with particular mental concepts or beliefs.

Picture


Bias, Dogma and Prejudice

Unconscious beliefs can influence how we think and can subtly change our perception of a situation or issue. Once an erroneous belief is accepted, it becomes more difficult to supplant. Deeply internalized beliefs become part of an individual’s identity and intuition. 

  • Bias is a “slanted” opinion about an issue and can occur unconsciously even though a person trusts his or her intention to be objective and reasonable. Prior belief can bias subjective observation, and since the source of a belief may be forgotten or unrecognized (see Source Amnesia), the credibility and legitimacy of the biased opinion is often suspect.

  • Dogma is a clearly defined set of beliefs held as established or put forth as an authoritative or expert opinion. Ideas are often drawn from secondary sources, but have little or no supportive empirical evidence from primary sources. Ingrained and dogmatic belief makes it harder to step outside one’s logical loop and shift perspective.

  • Prejudice is a strong form of internalized bias and is often the result of limited experience both in practice and in theory. A prejudiced attitude toward a particular group, culture or individual may include unfair attributions: projecting presumed motives and traits onto members in a generalized and narrow manner.

  • Indoctrination is a conditioning process leading to deeply instilled beliefs, which cannot be changed without disruption to one’s sense of identity or sense of cohesiveness. Personal identity becomes entangled with a belief system. An intense emotional investment is made in a construct of meaning producing a sense of conviction even in the face of clearly conflicting evidence.

Brain and Belief
Underlying Mechanisms
  • What is Belief?
  • Perception and Processing
  • Creating Categories
  • Salience and Tagging
  • Embodied Cognition
  • Emotion Cognition Interplay 
  • Creating a Story About the World 
  • Identifying Self with Belief 
  • Investing in Cherished Beliefs 
  • Attributing Worth and Motives 
  • Search for Belonging 
  • Search for Meaning 
  • Search for Certainty