Hatred is an intense, negatively colored destructive feeling that reflects rejection, disgust and hostility to the object of hatred (a person, a group of persons, an inanimate object, a phenomenon).

It is caused both by any actions of the object and by its inherent qualities, the perception of the object of hatred as contradicting the beliefs and values of the subject, negatively affecting his life, preventing the satisfaction of his important needs.

Hatred can be associated with experiencing pleasure from the failures of the object and with the desire for evil, with the intention to harm the object of emotion.

The causes of hatred and enmity are so small and insignificant that the apparent irrationality of such causes, together with the ease with which hatred can be instilled from the outside, makes it possible to assume that people have an initial need for hatred and hostility.

Similarly, part of the conflicts and the hatred associated with conflicts can be considered not so much as a consequence of some real causes, but as the release of aggressive tension; hatred can be directed at one or another object.

On the other hand, hatred can act not as aggression manifested in the conflict, but existing in addition to it, and not as an attitude towards the object that is the cause of the conflict, but as a mental mechanism generated by the conflict situation and intensifying hostility ("It is advisable to hate the enemy").

This approach finds its expression in hate-inducing propaganda accompanying wars and other types of conflicts, which seeks to increase the motivation of society with the help of hatred and thus strengthen its position in the conflict.

Social hatred (hatred as a feeling of a group of people) accompanies the most severe conflicts in society (riots, wars, genocide) and is one of the causes of discrimination.

Hatred and incitement to hatred in different countries may in some cases be considered as an aggravating circumstance in a crime or as an independent crime.