UCLA is launching the Initiative to Study Hate, an ambitious social impact project that brings together a broad consortium of scholars to understand and ultimately mitigate hate in its multiple forms.
Supported by a $3 million gift from an anonymous donor, researchers will undertake 23 projects this year. The three-year pilot spans topics that examine the neurobiology of hate, the impact of social media hate speech on kids, the dehumanization of unhoused individuals, racial discrimination in health care settings and more.
UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty involved include Dr. Lillian Gelberg, professor of health policy and management, and Dr. Randall Kuhn, professor of community health sciences, who will address stigma directed at people experiencing homelessness; Dr. Ninez Ponce, the Fred W. and Pamela K. Wasserman professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, and Dr. Gilbert Gee, professor and chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences, who will address mental health effects of the 2021 Atlanta mass shooting; Dr. Paula Tavrow, professor of community health sciences, who will address hatred for abortion providers in the United States; while Dr. David Eisenman, professor of community health sciences, will serve as affiliated faculty with the initiative.
