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Back in 2016 the pizza restaurant owner James Alefantis began to receive a large number of abusive messages on social media. Confused and afraid, he goes online and to his horror discovers dozens of bogus articles describing how the basement of his pizza joint is being used to traffic and molest children. The architect of this so-called 鈥渃hild sex ring鈥�, the fake articles conclude, is presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her inner circle. Later that year, Edgar Welch burts into the restaurant armed with guns. He fires several shots into a cabinet where he believes the children are being kept.

In this episode of Bad People, criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen discuss the mental gymnastics required to believe in conspiracy theories and how such beliefs can lead to violence. Welsch committed a crime that landed him in prison and left the community traumatised, but he thought he was saving children, so does that make him a bad person? We discover that Welsch is not a special case, on the contrary, conspiracy beliefs are very common and we are all vulnerable to their potentially harmful influence.

This episode includes audio from an interview with Hillary Clinton at the Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, CBS Evening News, Fresh Air with Dave Davies from NPR, CNN and 大象传媒 World Service.

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen
Producer: Louisa Field
Assistant Producer: Simona Rata
Music: Matt Chandler
Editor: Rami Tzabar
Academic Consultants for The Open University: Lara Frumkin and James Munro
Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland
Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a 大象传媒 Audio Science Production for 大象传媒 Sounds.

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