70. Pharma Bro 2: Why do we hate?

In September 2015, Martin Shkreli quickly became ‘the most hated man in America’ after he raised the price of the life-saving drug, Daraprim, by more than 4,000% - almost overnight.

Instead of apologising or hiding away, Shkreli decided to lean into his villain image, with even more media appearances and antagonising acts. In an interview with The Hustle magazine, Shkreli was quoted as saying: “People want a villain,” “If people derive some psychological benefit from that, then I don’t want to deprive them of it. I’ll be your villain.”

Shkreli lied with regularity, harassed female journalists and even took on the Wu-Tang Clan. At his securities fraud trial almost 200 jurors were ‘excused’ during jury selection because as one juror said: “The only thing I’d be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to.”

In part two, Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen discuss the latest research on ‘hate’. Why do we hate? Whom do we hate? And can one love to be hated? They also talk about jury selection and whether it is ever possible to have a completely unbiased jury.

CREDITS Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Simona Rata Music: Matt Chandler Editor: Anna Lacey #BadPeople_BBC Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds.