Ever wondered how you can fight with your siblings one moment and be super close the next? Why we like to play on the trope of haters turned lovers in so many movies? It turns out that love and hate are two emotions that have similarities in brain activity.
What is love? It’s a question that so many of us ask ourselves, and some of us even make songs based on it (like TWICE, if you wish to listen XD). We tend to describe it as a positive, affectionate emotion, whether it be more romantic, platonic, etc. It’s different from how people tend to describe hate: an emotion that encourages divisions within society, causes wars, and sparks arguments at the dinner table at family gatherings. They seem to be very different, but when we look at the brain regions that activate these two emotions, there are some common ones. In 2008, researchers at the University College London found regions of the brain that activated when feeling hateful emotions, regions that were dubbed the ‘hate circuit.’
There are two regions that are common between love and hate: the insula and the putamen. The insula is a region folded deep in our brain, and its level of activity is associated with the intensity of a particular emotion. Based on insular activity, it seems as if the intensity of love and hate are the same. The putamen is a round structure near the front of the brain that translates thoughts into actions, and is responsible for the perception of fear and disgust. It can help translate thoughts of protecting someone you love and being aggressive towards someone you hate.
So what makes these two emotions different from each other? Also part of the ‘hate circuit’ are regions in the cortex, or the outer layer of the brain with the folds. These regions are responsible for judgement and reasoning. When feeling hatred, these regions’ activity tends to increase. When feeling love, these regions tend to deactivate. So while both love and hate involve intense emotion, hate tends to be followed by focused, calculated behavior.
With all of that said, how does love turn to hate, and how does hate turn to love? As of now there is no concrete evidence as to how this happens, but we can speculate based on what we do know so far. Certain behaviors from a hated individual could instigate the same intense activity in the insula and putamen, while deactivating the previously held judgement perceived by the cortex. When arguing with someone you love, the reasoning involved from both sides of the argument could activate particular regions in the cortex while maintaining the intensity of the emotion.
In addition to speculation, this knowledge could be used to solve issues of hate in society. If we could prevent hate-based wars and fights, this would help improve world peace and prosperity. If we could turn hate into love, or perhaps even find a middle-ground emotion between the two, our world would be a much better place to live in. If this topic intrigues you, Wednesday Scientists, see if you can dig deeper to make the world a better place!
Post By: Roshni P. M.
Photo Credits: Unpslash, Fakurian Design, https://unsplash.com/photos/58Z17lnVS4U
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