Hostility

{{Short description|Form of emotionally charged angry behavior}} {{Redirect|Hostile}} {{Infobox medical condition (new) | name = Hostility | synonyms = | image = Anger during a protest by David Shankbone.jpg | caption = Two people in a heated argument in New York City | pronounce = | field = Psychiatry | symptoms = | complications = | onset = | duration = | types = | causes = | risks = | diagnosis = | differential = | prevention = | treatment = | medication = | prognosis = | frequency = | deaths = }}{{Emotions}} '''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 of neuroticism in the NEO PI, and forms part of personal construct psychology, developed by 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 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 All Blacks 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 considered hostility as the attempt to extort validating evidence from the environment to confirm types of social prediction, 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 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 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 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>

==References== {{Reflist}}

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Category:Aggression Category:Emotions Category:Rage (emotion) Category:Symptoms or signs related to personality features