Current research has focused primarily on how hate works in groups or its theoretical nature. This study replicates previous findings (Aumer-Ryan & Hatfield, 2007) that hate is primarily felt towards intimate others or people we spend considerable time with. Ninety-eight participants filled out a survey concerning themselves, the people they love and the people they hate. Participants also filled out a survey about motivations concerning the people they love and hate. Results demonstrate that participants saw people they hate considerably differently than those they love, and themselves. Additionally, this study provides empirical evidence that hate can be used as a predictor of motivation. Specifically, disgust and devaluation were important predictors in negative and positive motivation. Additional studies examining interpersonal hate can help better understand how hate operates and inform current theoretical literature.

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Theories concerning hatred in personal relationships lack empirical evidence. These two studies address the need to provide empirical information about how hate works in interpersonal, loving relationships. Effort justification theory (Aronson & Mills, 1959) suggests that past hate may have a beneficial function in relationships that remain together; however, if hate is a truly destructive motivation (Rempel & Burris, 2005), this hate may have a lasting irreconcilable impact on the quality of the relationship. By surveying people in both the United States and Norway about their personal loving relationships, we discovered that hatred leaves a lasting deleterious impression on interpersonal relationships. People are more likely to report less intimacy, satisfaction, and love with people they have previously hated. Furthermore, effort justification and cognitive dissonance, when measured as relationship length, was observed in the report of higher commitment to those previously hated. Future assessments of relationship quality should consider measuring hatred and length of relationship. Keywords: hate, relationship quality, intimacy, satisfactionMost of the research addressing emotions in intimate and interpersonal relationships focuses on love (e.g., Hatfield & Rapson, 1993) and anger (e.g., Dutton, 2010). However, relationships can have hurtful and damaging qualities that can elicit hate. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research addressing hatred in interpersonal relationships. Much research has been spent on understanding group hatred, specifically hatred towards minorities or other group members (Brewer, 1999;McCann, 2009;Ray & Van Bavel, 2014). And although this research is laudable, the interpersonal dimension of hatred that deals with one's hatred towards another person (despite his/her group membership) has not been fully investigated. There are theoretical approaches to better understanding interpersonal hatred (e.g., Rempel & Burris, 2005;Sternberg, 2003;Sternberg & Sternberg, 2008); however, little empirical research has fully vetted these theories. Historically, much of the research on hatred in psychology comes from a psychoanalytic perspective (Blum, 1997;Kernberg, 1992;Klein, 1975;McKellar, 1950;Moss, 2003;Strasser, 1999;Vitz & Mango, 1997), which focuses more on the theoretical nature of hatred and less on the empirical evidence.The primary purpose of the following studies was to better understand, from an empirical perspective, how interpersonal hatred can affect the quality of the relationship with someone hated. Much of the current literature concerning interpersonal relationships does not consider how ambivalent feelings (like having both hate and love in a relationship) can have an impact on a relationship's satisfaction. Some research does attempt to investigate how hate operates or is defined in a relationship. Fitness and Fletcher (1993) conducted several studies on hate in intimate relationships and concluded that the overall concept of hate in intimate relationships involves low levels o...