Poll: Is hate our natural answer to the unknown?

[HeavyWeaponsSpy]

To the close-minded idiot, yes. To the more intelligent man who is willing to accept the unknown, no.

 

[Kair]

Our reaction to the unknown is uncertainty, and some respond to uncertainty with anger. It takes character to respond well to doubt. Most of humans do not have character.

 

[RJ Dalton]

No. *Fear* is our natural response to the unknown. Hate is a secondary response based around that fear.

 

[Gigano]

It's certainly a natural answer, although far from the only possible one, and very seldom a justified one when going by (secular) logical reasoning and ethical philosophies.

Anyway, Freedom of Thought, so it's really people's own business who and why they hate, so long as they don't violate the legal rights of the object(s) of said hate. All kinds of weird sorry homophobes have every right to be weird sorry homophobes, so long as they don't oppose equal rights being given to gay people by the state.

 

[blizzaradragon]

It's not just hate by itself, it's fear of the unknown that turns into hate. What happens is the fear leads us to questions like "What if person X does action Y to me?" or "What if group A changes how item B affects me?", which causes us in turn to hate until we learn otherwise.

 

[Avistew]

I think mistrust is the natural response, so that we don't rush into things and get hurt. It's instinct. It's because we don't trust new things right away that we're still around.
Hate can be caused by mistrust and misunderstanding, but it doesn't always stem from it.

 

[Kargathia]

I never , ever expressed hate for these groups but , if I was uneducated , would I do the same thing? or would I be a hate mongering thug that goes on racist rallies and attacks people because they have darker skin?

Most of your post is already answered in a way that I have nothing to add to, but this part was rather interesting.

I'd say the answer is yes, and no. You wouldn't be a hate-mongering thug when uneducated, just as small children aren't racist. They only feel the instinctive fear and wonder of all things unknown when they see somebody who's "different".
Nature and nurture are both involved, but to what extent each their influence is, is still one of these unknowns of psychology.

There was a rather interesting study a while back though, that tried to check how much of our racial prejudices are only good manners. Good manners decrease the more stress is put on us, so they went and stressed out people in a natural way, before posing them a bunch of questions that rated how racist and xenophobic they were.
The "natural way" of stressing people was to simply empty a few trash cans at bus stops and stations to make a mess I'm pretty sure we've all encountered - when not caused by science.
The ones who were stressed out because they were sitting amidst the rubble were decidedly more racist than the ones sitting in a clean area.

 

[Kagim]

People mistrust the unknown. Mistrust is very good for not dying when you have no clue what something is.

Rather then die violently at the hands of something you have no clue what it is you stay on guard and defensive of it. If for any reason you are provided evidence (Regardless if it is true or not) to like or hate it your bias will be formed.

So as for homosexuality, upon hearing.... I dunno lets make up something... "Gays are over 9000% more likely to contract aids and spread it to straight people" followed by lots of pretty stats and colorful circles labeled with the word pie one with absolutely no bias will start off with that little 'fact' in their mind. Regardless of any actual truth to it.

Mistrust is not a bad thing, but it can be used to manipulate people. People don't start off hating things.