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The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership

INTRODUCTION: The results of the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union (EU) membership have highlighted deep societal divides. In six studies, we examined the role of personality traits, cognition and cognitive biases in relation to referendum voters’ choices. METHODS: A total of 11,225...

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Autores principales: Sumner, Chris, Scofield, John E., Buchanan, Erin M., Evans, Mimi-Rose, Shearing, Matthew
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37034948
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1077354
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author Sumner, Chris
Scofield, John E.
Buchanan, Erin M.
Evans, Mimi-Rose
Shearing, Matthew
author_facet Sumner, Chris
Scofield, John E.
Buchanan, Erin M.
Evans, Mimi-Rose
Shearing, Matthew
author_sort Sumner, Chris
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: The results of the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union (EU) membership have highlighted deep societal divides. In six studies, we examined the role of personality traits, cognition and cognitive biases in relation to referendum voters’ choices. METHODS: A total of 11,225 participants completed questionnaires and controlled experiments, which assessed differences in personality traits, levels of authoritarianism, numeracy, thinking styles, and susceptibility to cognitive biases including ideologically motivated numeracy and reasoning, framing, and the Dunning-Kruger effect. RESULTS: Participants expressing an intent to vote to leave the EU reported significantly higher levels of authoritarianism and conscientiousness, and lower levels of openness and neuroticism than voters expressing an intent to vote to remain in the EU. When compared with Remain voters, Leave voters displayed significantly lower levels of numeracy and appeared more reliant on impulsive System 1 thinking. In the experimental studies, voters on both sides were found to be susceptible to the cognitive biases tested, with a general trend for Leave voters to show more bias than Remain voters. DISCUSSION: These results raise important questions regarding the use and framing of numerical and non-numerical data for public consumption.
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spelling pubmed-100750832023-04-06 The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership Sumner, Chris Scofield, John E. Buchanan, Erin M. Evans, Mimi-Rose Shearing, Matthew Front Psychol Psychology INTRODUCTION: The results of the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union (EU) membership have highlighted deep societal divides. In six studies, we examined the role of personality traits, cognition and cognitive biases in relation to referendum voters’ choices. METHODS: A total of 11,225 participants completed questionnaires and controlled experiments, which assessed differences in personality traits, levels of authoritarianism, numeracy, thinking styles, and susceptibility to cognitive biases including ideologically motivated numeracy and reasoning, framing, and the Dunning-Kruger effect. RESULTS: Participants expressing an intent to vote to leave the EU reported significantly higher levels of authoritarianism and conscientiousness, and lower levels of openness and neuroticism than voters expressing an intent to vote to remain in the EU. When compared with Remain voters, Leave voters displayed significantly lower levels of numeracy and appeared more reliant on impulsive System 1 thinking. In the experimental studies, voters on both sides were found to be susceptible to the cognitive biases tested, with a general trend for Leave voters to show more bias than Remain voters. DISCUSSION: These results raise important questions regarding the use and framing of numerical and non-numerical data for public consumption. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10075083/ /pubmed/37034948 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1077354 Text en Copyright © 2023 Sumner, Scofield, Buchanan, Evans and Shearing. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Sumner, Chris
Scofield, John E.
Buchanan, Erin M.
Evans, Mimi-Rose
Shearing, Matthew
The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership
title The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership
title_full The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership
title_fullStr The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership
title_full_unstemmed The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership
title_short The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership
title_sort role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the united kingdom’s 2016 referendum on european union membership
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37034948
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1077354
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