The Power of Hate Speech: The Brain on the Aphrodisiac of Belittling

The Raft of the Medusa

1818

Théodore Géricault

Hate is a disease in our society and all to often nestles itself into our collective conscious and lashes out for relevance in a world where the demographics of the nation are changing. Where hate speech rises and spreads like lightning through rumor networks and online social media platforms there is a growing force to challenge that which hampers our ability to master the next leg of our national challenges (innovation and human capital.). As elusive as it seems our futures are integrally tied to bringing people together for a worthwhile cause and not embellishing in hate speech that does the opposite exploiting divisionary exclusivity.

A Hypothetical Example of Clan/Group Based Hate

Let me give you a hypothetical scenario.... 

An in-group, as defined by a particular race/ethnicity, cultural, and religious background targeted a minority family in an area in an effort to punish them for some perceived wrongs and their willingness to say "no" (By extension act like a 1st class citizen.) Let us say we are dealing with a large social network formed around sports identities (Sometimes there is a history of bullying in groups learned while young so its a good example of socialized inappropriate behaviors that may have become socially customary. The mediocre quality of sports playing doesn't appear to be a factor in the decision to engage in anti social leaning antics. It really could be any group but I have come across other studies about some sport cultures so that argument can be supported.). As hate speech frequency increased, pushed by a few toxic individuals who exploited those differences for self gain, the empathy of the entire group declines. 

What would normally be reasonable people and behaviors become a common projected target for unrealized self-conscious failures. 

False police reports, social networks, mixed in with a speckle of extremism that created secondary waves of hate further violating the rights of the family and leading to behaviors that could be seen under certain lights as ethnic-religious based cleansing. 

The Power of Hate to Distort

There are many questions that come out of this running hypothetical example used as a way to further understand the influence of extremism and hate in our society. One of those question is how could seemingly descent people and reasonableness be overshadowed by hate and aggression? So much so that it likely violated many laws (depending on how one views the purpose and application of such laws.) and in the aftermath there was increased resistance to meaningful change to ensure it doesn't happen again. As hate rises the environment became increasingly distorted and dangerous as the narrative morphed and each person found a reason to further hate the targets of disdain (Doesn't matter the race or religion. However, the initial example was Muslim and Blacks. These are often the most targeted by extremism leaning groups. Certainly any religious, ethnic or other background can engage in such behaviors that we should discourage in society.) 

If you want to know how this works think of worst thing you can think of Muslim, Black, Jews, Hispanics, White (We have to include them since post Gen Z they will also be minorities) and then spread that without any facts. It is easy to manipulate social networks that already hold bigoted views by making up stories and spreading them to everyone you can in hope that they will find the rumors juicy enough to spread that onto others in an effort to punish the family. As each person hears the story they believe it without critical examination and then act on that without any knowledge. They became flying monkeys and extension of hate based cleansing simply because it was socially supported and encouraged within their somewhat homogeneous networks (Also the difference between those who follow and those who lead. Those who are capable of Alpha leadership question information while those who are Beta followers believe without critical thought because their social cues told them to.).

A Study on Hate Speech and Neurological Decline of Group Empathy

There are more and more studies coming out how certain behaviors persist and the psychological and sociological drivers that are influencing our ability to see each other as part of the same community/society. Polices have come and gone but the problem persists because we have not created a shared vision of what a universal democracy with maximum economic participation looks like (Logically we don't have an option that will be positive except to create a shared sense of direction and understanding. It doesn't get votes but it still could be true! Maybe? 🤷) 

Creating singular communities requires a healthy understanding of differences and a shared commitment to not support hate speech and those who engage in it (There are differences between opinion and grossly fabricated stories designed to enflame and direct hate.). That also includes not encouraging hate in politics or the use of such superficial differentiators in decision making (This is also why we don't want politics to be divided by religion, skin color or other factors that separate our society. All/both parties should be race and religion neutral. A few words of wisdom that may be valuable to the long term perspective.) 

A few key points from the study entitled, 'Exposure to hate speech deteriorates neurocognitive mechanisms of the ability to understand others’ pain.' (Mazurek &Wojciechowski, 2023)

-30 healthy adults

-2 groups. One group is exposed to hate speech and the other group is not exposed to hate groups.

-fMRI was used to determine associated brain activation to the hate speech or neutral language. 

-Using whole brain and regional interest analysis impacts the right temporal parietal junction (rTPJ) when exposed to derogatory comments about Pole or Arab migrants (I did this study on Iraqi Immigrants once and it was an eye opener. The differences in perceptions are most interesting. I have also looked at this problem for a while formally and informally so I can shed some insight into this.).

-Results exposure to hate speech for 15 minutes reduced empathy over pain of migrants for both Poles and Arabs.

-Hate speech might lead to prejudice, dehumanization and lack of empathy.

-Hate speech is not localized to any specific group but to any group in which hate speech targets. (I call this a universal truth that applies broadly across mankind. It can be experienced in every culture and place.)

A Few Thoughts

Hate influences how we see and relate to others and chips away at the roots of our futures. Those who spread hate do so to dehumanize their targets which often sets the stage for greater atrocities. As preexisting bias is tapped for the dramatic flare of hype, the targets become every more responsible for the hate groups choices and behaviors. It can go on in some circumstances until those deemed at fault for the perpetrators shortcomings have been stripped of their value in society, stripped of their most fundamental rights and ultimately stripped of justice. There is no empathy for "the other" where hate has diseased the foundations collective contribution (i.e. the lost human capital problem that represents a massive source of national development momentum.)

Pluta, A., Mazurek, J., Wojciechowski, J. et al. Exposure to hate speech deteriorates neurocognitive mechanisms of the ability to understand others’ pain. Sci Rep 13, 4127 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31146-1