From Shame to Hate: The Role of Stories in Constructing a Hate Habitus

We theorize the pathway from shame to hate—illuminating the individual, collective, and institutional processes involved. To do so we draw on the phenomenology of hate to unpack the development of an oppositional hate habitus: a durable disposition oriented around hate that protects against a return to shame. We develop a process model to show how this hate habitus emerges through, (1) shifting attributions of blame using victim narratives; (2) over-generalizing of the malicious “Other” based on the accumulation (and re-writing) of narratives; and (3) constituting the self and one’s community through positioning of “us” versus “them,” protagonists versus antagonists. The concept of an institutionalized hate habitus explains why hate is such an intractable emotion: it offers a sense of superiority and connectedness that is otherwise unavailable to those who feel deep shame; it gains unshakeable strength from its over-generalized, blurred focus that makes it resistant to logic or empathy; and it is imbued with existential importance by constituting the self and one’s social group in contrast to others. While research on how to successfully counter hate is very limited, our theorizing suggests some broad potential directions, and we point to these possibilities as important avenues for future research.