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.
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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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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’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.
