By Amelia Watt It can be hard to stay positive in a world where it seems like horrible things are happening everyday. Just turning on the news is enough to ruin a person’s day. In the past couple years, the amount of hate crimes in the US has risen drastically. Americans are being bombarded by news stories of mass shootings, sexual assault cases, and police brutality on a daily basis. With the increasing amount of crimes fueled by prejudice and discrimination, it makes one wonder if the hate speech we see everyday is a direct cause of violent acts.
In the article The Neuroscience of Hate Speech, psychiatrist Richard A. Freeman analyzes the effects that hate speech can have on our brain. It is known that humans are easily influenced and spurred on by rage. When a person becomes angry, it can be easy to lose logic and common sense. According to a series of Polish studies by Wiktor Soral, Michal Bilewicz, and Mikołaj Winiewski, repeated exposure to hate speech can increase prejudice and desensitize people to verbal aggression. The repeated exposure normalizes the socially opposed behaviors of prejudice and discrimination. Another study associated with Cornell University, shows that threatening language can provoke a surge in stress hormones (cortisol and norepinephrine) which engages the amygdala. Feeling threatened makes it harder for people to think or act rationally. In addition, Susan Fiske, a psychologist from Princeton University, has found that a distrust of a specific group is linked to anger and causes an impulse toward violence. This feeling is emphasised when a society faces economic hardships and people are made to see outsiders as competitors. This correlates with the common argument that people against immigration into the United States use. They say that immigrants take jobs away from Americans who were in the country first. The action of pointing fingers to find blame can easily lead to rash action and violence. Mina Cikara, a psychologist from Harvard University, says that “When a group is put on the defensive and made to feel threatened, they begin to believe that anything, including violence, is justified.” In a 2011 study by Fiske to researched “social cognition”, psychologists found that people when shown photos of drug addicts and homeless people were found to be generally unempathetic. Seeing the photos even activated the subject’s insula region which is implicated with feelings of disgust. Fiske has also written that “Both science and history suggest that people will nurture and act on their prejudices in the worst ways when these people are put under stress, pressured by peers, or receive approval from authority figures to do so.” Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram, conducted a classic experiment that demonstrates the power of authority to cause physical violence. During the early 1960s, Milgram brought subjects in and told them to administer electric shocks. The subjects did not know that the shocks were fake. An overwhelming 65% of participants obeyed instruction and delivered the shock which if real would be fatal. This study demonstrates that humans can be easily swayed by authority to do horrible things. Hate speech can be demoralizing and hurtful, but it is important to stay empathetic. If we let ourselves get caught up in the anger it’ll only lead to more violence. If we want to make the world a better and safer place for all, we must rely on our empathy and avoid getting caught up in the anger that is all too common nowadays. Friedman, R. A. (2018, October 31). The Neuroscience of Hate Speech. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/caravan-hate-speech-bowers-sayoc.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Psychology and Psychologists&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=16&pgtype=collection Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/caravan-hate-speech-bowers-sayoc.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FPsychology%20and%20Psychologists&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=16&pgtype=collection Photo Link: http://fortune.com/2017/09/12/millennials-hate-speech-freedom-of-speech/
2 Comments
RJ
12/13/2018 10:18:38 am
I really like how there is a lot of studies that really enforces the argument. I can kind of relate to this because my cousin's neighbors called the N word. This article really brings shows all the hate in a psychological stand point. I would give this a 10/10.
Reply
Lizzie Guertler
12/16/2018 06:46:12 am
I love this article Amelia! I think you are bringing to mind the reason hate crime/speech is really dangerous for our society. For me personally I haven't thought about the psychological standpoint but now your article has me thinking that no matter who we are/what we are, we have to think about what we are doing. You are right in the fact that there are people who think their actions against racial groups are being justified and it is the instance where people think that since someone else did this horrible thing that offends them, they can go and do something even worse. It is something that is spiraling into a whirlwind of hate crimes that are hard to stop.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Ms. Carrigan's Psych ClassWe have been reading articles about psychological studies to inform the way we live our lives. Please explore, and we hope you learn a bit about the psychology in your life! Categories
All
Archives
November 2019
|