I really enjoyed this and felt like I gained a lot from in terms of a learning perspective as well. Would recommend.

It is a truly disturbing world, both online and offline. The book gives a profound and detailed insight in the world of hate and subcultures. It talks about psychology, sociology and gives an understanding into the darkest minds out there. The book should come with a warning though. The examples are often graphic and horrifying.

Interesting read, especially since it was so up to date with current political affairs and remained engaging and non-patronising the whole way through

Fascinating and informative, this book kept me reading with the right balance of stories and facts, and an engaging tone. I love it when i read a book and feel i know the author afterwards, and this is what i got here. Brilliant.

The Science of Hate is a fascinating and extensively researched book that attempts to answer one seemingly simple question: why do people commit hate crimes? A world-leading criminologist explores the tipping point between prejudice and hate crime, analysing human behaviour across the globe and throughout history in this vital book. As a Professor of Criminology with over 20 years of experience, and widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in hate crime, Williams is uniquely qualified to address this issue and looks at it from multiple angles: from how evolution and biology predispose humans to favour the ingroup, right through to how financial meltdowns, global pandemics, AI and sporting events can create the conditions for hateful behaviour. In the book, Williams talks to perpetrators and victims, brain scientists and psychologists and makes use of the most cutting-edge scientific tools, to help reveal the science behind hate. The book addresses the pressing questions of our times: Are our brains wired to hate? Why are parents more prone to hateful thoughts? Do divisive political leaders polarise communities and cause more hate crimes? Why has the COVID-19 pandemic increased hate against Chinese, Jews, Muslims and gays?

Why do police murders of Black men, like George Floyd, make the hate crime problem worse? What part have tech giants like Facebook played in modern genocide? How do we use cutting-edge science to stop the rising tide of hate? This is a captivating, eye-opening and thought-provoking read full of research, statistics, facts and figures, but Williams also discusses his own experiences with hate crime. It was in his early 20s he initially became a target and he explains how it affected him both physically and mentally; these attacks were what drove him to find out why they chose him to abuse. The last 20 years of his career has involved looking into some of the darkest parts of the human mind to work out what makes a prejudiced thought turn into hateful and sometimes violent action. Left unchallenged, the expression of hate in our modern connected society has the potential to become more widespread than at any other point in history. A revelatory book from a world-renowned expert, The Science of Hate is truly timely, engrossing and eminently readable and gets to the heart of why this human behaviour is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Highly recommended.