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
Well of course! You and I know that.
But again, let's not paint 10's of millions of Americans as dumb. They are not, and the threat is more real when we consider that.
I'd also argue for ignorance. How could anyone be that detached you might ask.
My wife is Philippina. Her ex brainwashed her into Trump, and she knows nothing about him except what she saw on Fox News. This guy is a 72-yo man who cried when Trump lost. He may be a mess in other ways, but he runs a successful business. And he votes.
My 69-yo sister only had the notion that Trump was kind of a bad man, but she didn't really know anything about him until we started talking politics. If she caught a FB post saying that Biden kicks puppies, she's voting Trump.
In spaces like this, it's easy to misunderstand how ignorant the rest of the electorate is.
Ignorance of who you are voting for is stupid.
Ignorance of some kind is
default human state.
But when it comes to something you are voting on, you should take some time to educate yourself on the candidates/issues from multiple sources. Not doing so is stupid.
Stupidity and ignorance are mostly synonymous. You don’t know what you don’t know until your eyes are opened to it.