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.”

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

  • bazingabrain [comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Liberal bullshit, half of labour voted leave, you know why? Because they correctly identified that the EU is an antidemocratic neoliberal farce designed to fuck over workers and siphon wealth from the poorer eastern member countries to their wealthier western neighbors, its purposefully complicated and has basically wrangled control of all member's economic policy. Most communist parties in Europe advocate for an end to the EU for very good reasons, its not just a reactionary position, the end of the EU is vital to the emancipation of the working class, period.

    • mar_k [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      I agree the EU sucks but most labour voted remain, and the majority of pro-leave people were right-wing bigots. Brexit would be great under socialism, but that wasn't and isn't taking form in a neoliberal hellhole like Britain. Brexit was inherently neoliberal and made the UK even worse

      fuck over workers and siphon wealth from the poorer eastern member countries to their wealthier western neighbors

      The leave campaign was literally "us British have to siphon our tax money to eastern member countries" because the EU makes its wealthier states give money to its poorer states. That and anti-immigrant, xenophobic, racist rhetoric against both eastern Europeans and non-white immigrants brought in from the EU. Literally just fear mongering open borders for allowing "undesirables" in.

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
        ·
        7 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]
          ·
          7 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]
            ·
            7 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

    • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Yeah, nah, the leftist position on leaving the EU was a vastly minority line mostly walked by accelerationists who also recognised it would only allow capitalists to fortify their positions and further exploit the working class. Britain leaving the EU only weakened the British working class, not the rest of the EU.

        • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
          ·
          7 months ago

          Yeah, the leftist party lines have generally been that the EU is neoliberal and exists to hold back the working class, but then we somehow elected progressively more ghoulish neoliberals until the material reality became one of the EU being one of the only things holding back the further exploitation of the working class. We might have had a chance if Corbyn had purged the leadership when he had the opportunity, but he never would have been allowed to get as far as he did if he was the purging type.