View source for Hostility

{{Short description|Form of emotionally charged angry behavior}}
{{Redirect|Hostile}}
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'''Hostility'''  is seen as a form of emotionally charged [[aggressive]] behavior. In everyday speech, it is more commonly used as a [[synonym]] for [[anger]] and [[aggression]].

It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a [[Facet (psychology)|facet]] of [[neuroticism]] in the [[Revised NEO Personality Inventory|NEO PI]], and forms part of [[personal construct psychology]], developed by [[George Kelly (psychologist)|George Kelly]].

==Hostility/hospitality==
For hunter gatherers, every stranger from outside the small tribal group was a potential source of hostility.<ref>J Diamond, ''The World Until Yesterday'' (Penguin 2013) p. 50 and p. 290</ref> Similarly, in archaic Greece, every community was in a state of hostility, latent or overt, with every other community - something only gradually tempered by the rights and duties of hospitality.<ref>M I Finley, ''The World of Odysseus'' (Pelican 1967) p. 113-4 and p. 116-7</ref>

Tensions between the two poles of hostility and hospitality remain a potent force in the 21st century world.<ref>K Thorpe ed., ''Hospitality and Hostility in the Multilingual Global Village'' (2014) p. 2-7</ref>

==Us/them==
[[Robert Sapolsky]] argues that the tendency to form in-groups and out-groups of Us and Them, and to direct hostility at the latter, is inherent in humans.<ref>R Sapolsky, ''Behave'' (London 2018) Ch 11 384-424</ref> He also explores the possibility raised by [[Samuel Bowles (economist)|Samuel Bowles]] that intra-group hostility is reduced when greater hostility is directed at Thems,<ref>R Sapolsky, ''Behave'' (London 2018) p. 45</ref> something exploited by insecure leaders when they mobilise external conflicts so as to reduce in-group hostility towards themselves.<ref>E Smith, ''Social Psychology'' (Hove 2007) p. 493</ref>

==Non-verbal indicators==
Automatic mental functioning suggests that among universal human indicators of hostility are the grinding or gnashing of teeth, the clenching and shaking of fists, and grimacing.<ref>D Maclean, ''The Triune Brain in Evolution'' (London 1990) p. 460</ref> [[Desmond Morris]] would add stamping and thumping.<ref>D Morris, ''The Naked Ape Trilogy'' (London 1988) p. 109</ref>

The [[Haka]] represents a ritualised set of such non-verbal signs of hostility.<ref>R Sapolsky, ''Behave'' (London 2018) p. 17</ref>

==Kelly's model==
In psychological terms, [[George Kelly (psychologist)|George Kelly]] considered hostility as the attempt to extort validating evidence from the environment to confirm types of social prediction, [[Social constructionism|constructs]], that have failed.<ref>D Lester, ''Theories of Personality'' (1995) p. 52</ref> Instead of reconstructing their constructs to meet disconfirmations with better predictions, the hostile person attempts to force or coerce the world to fit their view, even if this is a forlorn hope, and even if it entails emotional expenditure and/or harm to self or others.<ref>D Lester, ''Theories of Personality'' (1995) p. 52-4</ref>

In this sense hostility is a form of psychological [[extortion]] - an attempt to force reality to produce the desired feedback,<ref>G Claxton, ''Live and Learn'' (Bristol 1984) p. 132 and p. 250</ref> even by [[acting out]] in [[bullying]] by individuals and groups in various social contexts, in order that preconceptions become ever more widely validated. Kelly's theory of cognitive hostility thus forms a parallel to [[Leon Festinger]]'s view that there is an inherent impulse to reduce [[cognitive dissonance]].<ref>D Lester, ''Theories of Personality'' (1995) p. 76</ref>

While challenging reality can be a useful part of life, and [[Persistence (psychology)|persistence]] in the face of failure can be a valuable trait (for instance in invention or discovery {{citation needed|date=October 2012}}), in the case of hostility it is argued that evidence is not being accurately assessed but rather forced into a [[Procrustes|Procrustean]] mould in order to maintain one's belief systems and avoid having one's identity challenged.<ref>D Lester, ''Theories of Personality'' (1995) p. 52-3</ref>  Instead it is claimed that hostility shows evidence of [[Thought suppression|suppression]] or [[denial]], and is "deleted" from awareness -  unfavorable evidence which might suggest that a prior belief is flawed is to various degrees ignored and willfully avoided.<ref>G Claxton, ''Live and Learn'' (Bristol 1984) p. 14 and p. 19</ref>

==See also==
*[[Antisocial personality disorder]]
*[[Death drive]]
*[[Narcissism of small differences]]
*[[Righteous indignation]]
*[[Cook–Medley hostility scale]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{Wikiquote-inline}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline}}
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{{Cognition, perception, emotional state and behaviour symptoms and signs}}
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[[Category:Aggression]]
[[Category:Emotions]]
[[Category:Rage (emotion)]]
[[Category:Symptoms or signs related to personality features]]