Social Media Role

How those faces became something to be feared is, Williams argues, because of a complex cocktail of upbringing and cultural input, like racial stereotypes in movies.

Social media has a powerful role to play, too. Williams says it can work as an “accelerant” that pushes people towards radicalisation.

He highlights algorithms designed to make sites “sticky” that can lead people down rabbit holes of ‘alternative facts’.

One study found that even when people were paid to look at posts giving different political viewpoints to their own, it only seemed to reinforce their original beliefs.