Solomon Asch proved people will deny their own eyes to agree with a room full of strangers. Two decades later, most of the world did exactly that over masks, lockdowns and Fauci — and pretended it was science. Gareth goes back through the psychology of conformity, from Asch’s line experiments to information cascades, to ask why courage is so rare and the herd so comfortable.

Ugly people are probably not evil, but I’ve met enough people to suspect ugliness and moral failure occasionally share a bathroom. Before the professional victims have a panic attack, relax. I am obviously joking. Mostly. I’m not talking about people who lost the genetic lottery and ended up looking like they were assembled like Mr Potato Head in a collaboration between Stevie Wonder, Helen Keller, and Andrea Bocelli. Most of us are fairly average-looking.