Perspectives on Hate: How It Originates, Develops, Manifests, and Spreads

by Robert J. Sternberg (editor)

With hate crimes on the rise, it is more important than ever to understand how hate originates, develops, manifests, and spreads—and how it can be counteracted. In this book, renowned psychologist Robert J. Sternberg assembles a diverse group of experts to examine these central issues from the perspectives of multiple disciplines. The book is anchored by Sternberg’s FLOTSAM theory, which identifies key conditions that enable the development and transmission of hate, including fear, license, obedience to authority, trust, sense of belonging to a valued group, amplification of arousal, and modeling. Chapters work through various manifestations of hate as a thought, a feeling, or an action; forms of hate that are rooted in group bias, or that stem from a single relationship; and hate that varies in intensity, from the mundane to the extreme. Authors also explore the various cognitive and emotional processes at work, as well as the political motivations that can spark violent acts of hate. The book also considers the role of hate crime legislation and the relationships among hate speech, free speech, and group violence.  

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2020

About the author

Robert J. Sternberg's spectacular research career in psychology had a rather inauspicious beginning. In elementary school he performed poorly on IQ tests, and his teachers' actions conveyed their low expectations for his future progress. Everything changed when his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Alexa, saw that he had potential and challenged him to do better. With her encouragement, he became a high-achieving student, eventually graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University. In a gesture of gratitude, Dr. Sternberg dedicated his book, Successful Intelligence to Mrs. Alexa.

Dr. Sternberg's personal experiences with intelligence testing in elementary school lead him to create his own intelligence test for a 7 th grade science project. He happened to find the Stanford-Binet scales in the local library, and with unintentional impertinence, began administering the test to his classmates; his own test, the Sternberg Test of Mental Abilities (STOMA) appeared shortly thereafter. In subsequent years he distinguished himself in many domains of psychology, having published influential theories relating to intelligence, creativity, wisdom, thinking styles, love and hate.

Dr. Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of (Successful) Intelligence contends that intelligent behavior arises from a balance between analytical, creative and practical abilities, and that these abilities function collectively to allow individuals to achieve success within particular sociocultural contexts. Analytical abilities enable the individual to evaluate, analyze, compare and contrast information. Creative abilities generate invention, discovery, and other creative endeavors. Practical abilities tie everything together by allowing individuals to apply what they have learned in the appropriate setting. To be successful in life the individual must make the best use of his or her analytical, creative and practical strengths, while at the same time compensating for weaknesses in any of these areas. This might involve working on improving weak areas to become better adapted to the needs of a particular environment, or choosing to work in an environment that values the individual's particular strengths. For example, a person with highly developed analytical and practical abilities, but with less well-developed creative abilities, might choose to work in a field that values technical expertise but does not require a great deal of imaginative thinking. Conversely, if the chosen career does value creative abilities, the individual can use his or her analytical strengths to come up with strategies for improving this weakness. Thus, a central feature of the triarchic theory of successful intelligence is adaptability-both within the individual and within the individual's sociocultural context.