Why We Hate

It feels like the world is increasingly divided, with politicians and corporations eager to exploit these divisions to their own advantage. This six-part documentary series is billed as “an exploration into the human condition of hatred and how we can overcome it”.

Time Magazine said: “[It explores the] dark reaches of the human psyche, illuminating how extremists and demagogues use tactics like dehumanization to incite political unrest, oppression, violence and even genocide. Beyond tracing the roots of hate, they repeatedly raise the question of how and why that emotion can drive regular people to monstrous behaviour.”

From following former guerillas in Colombia, to profiling pro- and anti-Trump activists in the US, to interviewing football hooligans and victims of the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the team travels the globe looking at examples of division and reconciliation.

The documentary, which is flighting for the first time on Discovery on 13 October and streaming on Showmax the next day, is co-produced by a team including Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney, who also directed The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley, the HBO documentary about the fraud behind the blood-testing company Theranos.

Explaining his involvement, Spielberg says: “Getting to the root of the human condition is something I find not only fascinating, but absolutely necessary in understanding who we are. With the team in place, we delve into historical and modern-day stories of hate, travelling around the globe to uncover its mystery in others and in ourselves. If we understand why we act the way we do, we can change the way we act. That is what we are uniquely capable of as human beings.”