"It’s all smoke and mirrors, but I voted anyway”: understanding voter decisions behind ‘Brexit’

  • Hill, K. (Speaker)
  • Rebecca Semmens-Wheeler (Speaker)

Activity: Academic Talks or PresentationsKeynoteResearch

Description

This research is putting together the puzzle pieces behind the UK’s decision to leave the EU. While some research is beginning to emerge around so-called ‘Brexit’, limited work focuses on a number of psychological factors related to these recent events. Our large-scale, UK-wide survey focuses on attitudes towards voting preference, how participants might vote now and a range of attitudinal and personality factors. We found no difference between leave and remain and non-voters on locus of control, decision-making styles or empathy. However, leave voters reported higher levels of social dominance orientation, racial prejudice, and collective self-esteem. Age also a factor in voting choices, and older participants tended to report higher levels of social dominance orientation and racial prejudice. We will also report on initial qualitative findings, gathered from heavily leave-voting areas of the UK. Together, these findings contribute to the growing picture forming around UK’s decision to leave the EU, while providing an insight into the important psychological processes behind collective decision making.
Period16 Mar 2018
Event titleCentre for Brexit Studies Annual Conference 2018
Event typeConference
LocationBirmingham, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational