This post was originally written for my Facebook Page - The Psych Guy (username @PsychologyGuy)
What is contempt?
Contempt is simply that feeling of superiority that we have over another.
A review looked at the nature of dispositional contempt.
A dispositional feeling is one that forms part of the habitual reactions of an individual.
Contempt is an important issue as it has many social ramifications. Contempt has been marked out as the single biggest indicator of divorce (Gottman, 1994, as cited in Schriber et al 2016)
Contempt involves seeing the other person as less than ourselves. It raises us up, against the perceived indignity of the other. A dangerous emotion? Absolutely!
The nature of dispositional contempt?
After developing a questionnaire looking at traits of various dispositions - the researchers found a number of interesting results.
Dispositional contempt was highly correlated with dispositional anger.
These correlations went with hostility and verbal abuse.
Dispositional contempt was also highly and strongly related to dispositional envy.
With regards to the big five personality traits: dispositional contempt was correlated with neuroticism and disagreeableness.
Bearing how damaging contempt and dispositional contempt can be, it pays to understand it. Especially in light of war crimes and the dehumanisation of victims.
Schriber, R. A., Chung, J. M., Sorensen, K. S., & Robins, R. W. (2017). Dispositional contempt: A first look at the contemptuous person. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(2), 280–309. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000101
Indeed, contempt is a dangerous emotion. But I think, it is being taught by society because we are all born equal without any titles and crowns.