this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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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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[–] Gigan@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (6 children)

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.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Think of how dumb the average person is and realise half of them are dumber than that.

[–] Zorque@kbin.social 3 points 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.

[–] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

I expected some Carlin and I got some

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