In studies of genocide and other mass atrocities, the importance of hatred for our understanding of the causes and dynamics of such violence is an issue of continued contestation. In the context of transitional justice and reconciliation, notions of hatred as a lingering remainder to be appeased by justice or overcome through forgiveness abound. However, in spite of the many references to hatred, and in spite of the intensity with which the significance of hatred is affirmed or denied, focused and explorative investigations of hatred are few and far-between. This chapter embarks on such an investigation, not just to qualify the conceptual basis for discussion of hatred’s causal role, but more importantly to invite reflection on the very nature and possible forms of hatred at stake in mass atrocities. Drawing on insights from philosophical and sociological understandings of the nature, meaning, and location of the emotions, Thomas Brudholm and Birgitte S. Johansen aim to bring a more nuanced understanding of hatred to the field of genocide studies, not least by probing the premises of conventional Western notions of hatred and passions more generally as irrational, unmanageable, unpredictable, and interiorized.