Antipathy is a dislike for something or somebody, the opposite of

sympathy Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form. According to David Hume, this sympathetic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint from a personal perspective to the perspective of an ...

. While antipathy may be induced by experience, it sometimes exists without a rational cause-and-effect explanation being present to the individuals involved. Thus, the origin of antipathy has been subject to various

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some s ...

and

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwee ...

explanations, which some people find convincing and others regard as highly speculative. The exploration of a philosophical aspect for antipathy has been found in an essay by

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of ...

, an early modern 17th century philosopher.

Interpersonal antipathy

Interpersonal antipathy is often irrationally ascribed to mannerisms or certain physical characteristics, which are perceived as signs for character traits (e.g., close, deep set eyes as a sign for dullness or crueltyAlexander, Chester. (1946a). Antipathy and Phobia. ''Sociometry, 9'' (2/3), 226-232.). Further, the negative feeling sometimes takes place rapidly and without reasoning, functioning below the level of attention, thus resembling an automatic process.Alexander, Chester. (1946b). Antipathy and Social Behavior. ''The American Journal of Sociology, 51'' (4), 288-292. Chester Alexander’s empirical findings suggest that an important characteristic of antipathies is that they are "marginal to reflective consciousness". Alexander based this conclusion on the fact that many of the subjects of the study reported to have never thought much about their antipathies, have not tried to analyze them or discuss them with others. Sympathy and antipathy modify social behavior. Although it is generally assumed that antipathy causes avoidance, some empirical studies gathered evidence that an antipathetic reaction to objects was not followed by any effort to avoid future encounters.

Personality psychology

In personality psychology, antipathy may be related to low

agreeableness Agreeableness is a personality trait manifesting itself in individual behavioral characteristics that are perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm, and considerate. In contemporary personality psychology, agreeableness is one of the five ...

Pseudo-antipathy

Sophie Bryant observed the occurrence of pseudo-antipathy which consists in "the careless and arbitrary interpretation of another person's acts and expressions in accordance with the worst side of one's self".Bryant, Sophie. (1895). Antipathy and Sympathy. ''Mind, 4'' (15), pp. 365-370. In other words, people tend to project their own faults onto others and dislike or hate them. Pseudo-antipathy is based on the (implicit) knowledge about the negative sides of a person's own character. Bryant compares the resulting feeling with "a certain wrong-headed sense of cleansing".

References

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