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
Next you are going to tell me less intelligent people voted for Trump
Let’s not make the mistake of thinking they’re all dumb. Of the handful of Trump supporters I know, none are less than average intelligence.
There are different types of intelligence.
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.
Measures of “cognitive ability” are strongly correlated with social and economic success. If youre from a more wealthy family you go to a better school and have better nutrition etc. Also test taking is itself a skill and test taking ability improves significantly with more education, more education being strongly related to economic and social status.
Study finds that measures related to economic and social success correlated with maintaining the status quo.
deleted by creator
If there is a flaw in democracy, that’s probably it. A stupid person’s vote is worth the same as an intelligent person’s.
And this is why stupid people have been mobilized into an idiot army by the right.
Hypothetically, if Lemmy analyzed your posts and comments for intelligence (without telling you your score, to avoid drama) and then weighted your up/downvotes accordingly, would that be cool with you?
Gotta be honest with you, I’d like to know for sure.
Think of how dumb the average person is and realise half of them are dumber than that.
Then consider how much bias you’re putting into your perspective.
Anyone can be stupid. Even the smartest people in the world are stupid some of the time. Especially when the kind of culture we’ve built requires that people hyper-specialize in their field, so most people are rarely truly intelligent outside that field.
The problem is that we haven’t made critical thinking a priority, and those who seek to exploit voters have made it their mission that we never do.
I expected some Carlin and I got some
I’m sure just a little more condescension and you’ll win them over
I’d have more time for the people still on about this if they weren’t so bloody patrician about it all the time
Brexit was stupid, but I think this sort of thing is unhelpful and masturbatory.
The study assertion is funny, but I don’t really think it’s worth much in terms of proving anything.
The number of participants being 6,000 seems promising, but I question the value of the questions they asked.
Recall 10 words read to you immediately and then again after the interview.
Name as many animals as possible in an elotted amount of time.
Subtract 7 from 100. Then again. Up to five times.
Solve the missing numbers in two number sequences.
Answer 5 math word problems.
Depending on what mental state you’re in, whether you’re recently off work, high, coming back from a run, etc. I think you’re likely to have dramatically different test scores from these.
Furthermore, these seem much more relevant to the education quality of an individual - and they call it “cognitive performance” (how good you think at the time) in the study which is kind of correct, but the article is passing it off as the participants’ intelligence (how good you think period), which is fucked up IMO.
I overall don’t like it and don’t find it that persuasive.
Name as many animals as possible in an elotted amount of time
the inteligent answer to this question is “no” anyway
The same studies that say believing in Communism is the same as being a religious zealot
Julian Jaynes logged onto the chat
Quite the surprise…
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.
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.
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
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
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
deleted by creator
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.
deleted by creator
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.
Removed by mod
Mayos?
Aren’t votes supposed to be anonymous?
deleted by creator
Yea it makes sense that’s the kind of people that the message “were gonna tell all our trading partners to fuck themselves and do whatever we want and that will improve our trading relations” worked on.
Removed by mod
Who cares. This reeks of classic 1800s high brow literacy test discrimination. Nobody should care about the level of education the population that voted.
deleted by creator
Its true, i am scared of reverting 100 years to a past time where they used something like literacy as the reason that people could not vote.
Removed by mod
“Where they used something like literacy”
Its ok if reading comprehension isnt your strong suit. You might need a 3rd grade reading level to vote soon so you should brush up.
deleted by creator
Logical fallacy confirmed
