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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    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      618·
      11 months ago

      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.

        • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
          73·
          11 months ago

          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.

          • Tavarin
            7·
            11 months ago

            Ignorance of who you are voting for is stupid.

              • Tavarin
                1·
                11 months ago

                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.

  • Gigan@lemmy.world
    214·
    11 months ago

    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.

    • kool_newt@lemm.eeEnglish
      20·
      11 months ago

      And this is why stupid people have been mobilized into an idiot army by the right.

    • kglitch@kglitch.social
      10·
      11 months ago

      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?

      • Zorque@kbin.social
        52·
        11 months ago

        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.

  • _NoName_@lemmy.ml
    91·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • PatFusty@lemm.ee
    67·
    11 months ago

    Who cares. This reeks of classic 1800s high brow literacy test discrimination. Nobody should care about the level of education the population that voted.

      • PatFusty@lemm.ee
        42·
        11 months ago

        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.

  • DieguiTux8623@feddit.it
    212·
    11 months ago

    They were the majority and they had the right to vote for themselves. If they thought Europe was a sinking ship (even before the recent wars at its borders) and decided to jump away before drowning, that seems legit.

    • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world
      171·
      11 months ago

      if they thought

      You mean “if they were made to think”. They didn’t suddenly have this brilliant idea en masse that EU is a sinking ship. They were fed that horseshit over years by liars and grifters and scumbags.

      • DieguiTux8623@feddit.it
        111·
        11 months ago

        History will prove them right or wrong. I think I can not judge and hope the best for them.

        • Zorque@kbin.social
          91·
          11 months ago

          I mean, of the promises made by those liars, grifters, and scumbags… most of them have proven false by now. It’s not difficult to see it was most likely the wrong decision based on the factors that most touted as benefits.