New scientific research has found that less intelligent people were more likely to vote for Brexit. According to a new study, people who voted for the leave campaign are more likely to have had lower cognitive abilities.This may have made them more susceptible to disinformation, the authors of the s...

indy100.com Scientists discover that less intelligent people voted for Brexit Harry Fletcher ~2 minutes

New scientific research has found that less intelligent people were more likely to vote for Brexit.

According to a new study, people who voted for the leave campaign are more likely to have had lower cognitive abilities.

This may have made them more susceptible to disinformation, the authors of the study claim.

The new research comes from the University of Bath. As the study found, 73 per cent of the UK voters in the top 10 per cent of cognitive performance were remain voters.

Only 40 per cent of the people in the bottom 10 per cent of cognitive performance voted to remain in the EU.

The findings were published in the academic journal PLOS One are were based on analysis of 3,181 couples in the UK from an longitudinal study called Understanding Society.

iStock

The study was led by authors Chris Dawson and Paul Baker. The pair claim that the findings show “low cognitive ability makes people more susceptible to misinformation and disinformation”.

The pair list the rhetoric from leave campaign leaders claiming that the UK would be able to “take back control of our borders” as an example of disinformation, as well as the claim about the £350m Brexit windfall being used to fund the NHS.

Speaking to the Times, Dawson said: “It’s an uncomfortable thing to say, but I think it’s important to be said. We have increasing amounts of fake news and it’s getting more and more sophisticated.”

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  • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    really depends on region. brexit was for most of the country just wanting to do something anything different. Large amount of frustration with Londoners being condescending to them while the parts of the country they live in suffer from underinvestment

    a very strong part of leave was the idea that Britain will never be respected in Europe because we aren’t on the continent and thus we’re better not being part of any pan european movement. Also Poland wanted out of the EU too at the time

    I’m not denying racism was a part of it but it wasn’t all of it or even most. And it’s not like the idea of European brotherhood isn’t racially charged either

    • biden [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      Large amount of frustration with Londoners being condescending to them while the parts of the country they live in suffer from underinvestment

      What does that have to do with the EU though? Hasn’t the UK become significantly poorer and had greater inequality since Brexit? I was seeing a lot of leftists saying Brexit would only make the UK more of a neoliberal hell and it certainly has

      Britain will never be respected in Europe because we aren’t on the continent and thus we’re better not being part of any pan european movement

      Idk Ireland’s pretty well respected in the EU and they have pretty overwhelming 90+% support for maintaining EU membership. But I guess it’s more British people (especially English) being seen as the Americans of Europe

      Also Poland wanted out of the EU too at the time

      Did they? I mean, far-right parties seemed to endorse it but only 22% of the population actually supported leave, higher than now but still a clear minority

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        What does that have to do with the EU though

        it has to do with the fact that London wanted to stay in the EU and the fact people were frustrated and wanted to try something different.

        Hasn’t the UK become significantly poorer and had greater inequality since Brexit

        yeah but we’ve also had severe mismanagement and the price rises of the Ukraine war since so hard to say definitively Brexit did it

        Ireland’s pretty well respected in the EU

        no they aren’t the only ones respected in the EU are France and Germany. EU couldn’t give less of a shit about Ireland although at the moment they are a useful way to get back at the UK. This is not the first time European powers have leveraged Ireland against England though they didn’t care about the Irish then and they don’t now. After a while they will once again lose interest in Ireland