# Hostility

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{{Short description|Form of emotionally charged angry behavior}}
{{Redirect|Hostile}}
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| caption         = Two people in a heated argument in [New York City](/source/New_York_City)
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'''Hostility'''  is seen as a form of emotionally charged [aggressive](/source/aggressive) behavior. In everyday speech, it is more commonly used as a [synonym](/source/synonym) for [anger](/source/anger) and [aggression](/source/aggression).

It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a [facet](/source/Facet_(psychology)) of [neuroticism](/source/neuroticism) in the [NEO PI](/source/Revised_NEO_Personality_Inventory), and forms part of [personal construct psychology](/source/personal_construct_psychology), developed by [George Kelly](/source/George_Kelly_(psychologist)).

==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](/source/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](/source/Samuel_Bowles_(economist)) 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](/source/Desmond_Morris) would add stamping and thumping.<ref>D Morris, ''The Naked Ape Trilogy'' (London 1988) p. 109</ref>

The [All Blacks haka](/source/Haka_in_sports) 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](/source/George_Kelly_(psychologist)) considered hostility as the attempt to extort validating evidence from the environment to confirm types of social prediction, [constructs](/source/Social_constructionism), 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](/source/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](/source/acting_out) in [bullying](/source/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](/source/Leon_Festinger)'s view that there is an inherent impulse to reduce [cognitive dissonance](/source/cognitive_dissonance).<ref>D Lester, ''Theories of Personality'' (1995) p. 76</ref>

While challenging reality can be a useful part of life, and [persistence](/source/Persistence_(psychology)) 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 [Procrustean](/source/Procrustes) 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 [suppression](/source/Thought_suppression) or [denial](/source/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](/source/Antisocial_personality_disorder)
*[Death drive](/source/Death_drive)
*[Hate speech](/source/Hate_speech)
*[Narcissism of small differences](/source/Narcissism_of_small_differences)
*[Righteous indignation](/source/Righteous_indignation)
*[Cook–Medley hostility scale](/source/Cook%E2%80%93Medley_hostility_scale)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
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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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hostility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostility) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostility?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.