Contempt

The word contempt and its synonyms, disdain and scorn, smack of the elevated diction found in Victorian novels. Contempt is a negative feeling that embodies the judgment of regarding someone as inferior to oneself. Contempt is often mixed with other emotions, such as anger, hatred, or socio-moral disgust.

People who are contemptuous have a greater tendency than others to look down on, derogate, or distance others whose standards or values are appalling to them.

Researchers have largely examined contempt as an intrapersonal phenomenon, with regard to both its facial expression and its relational and moral antecedents.

The consequences for recipients of contempt are large, ranging from the physiological stress response associated with shame and rejection to subjective distress and drops in self-esteem from getting outcast by group members, at the intergroup level, possibly getting bombed.

Contempt is a moral emotion. In contrast with other emotions that can be elicited in reaction to both moral and amoral events, contempt is generally elicited in reaction to a moral transgression.
Contempt