It’s well known that people with less education were more likely to vote Leave in the Brexit referendum. Which is probably why pro-Remain commentators felt able to question Leave voters’ understanding of the relevant issues. Richard Dawkins referred to an “ignorant and misled public”, while Baroness King claimed that many people “were unaware of the far-reaching consequences of the EU referendum”.
But were Leave voters less intelligent? Yes, according to a new study. Chris Dawson and Paul Baker analysed data from a large UK survey in which respondents were given various tests of cognitive ability, as well as being asked how they voted in the referendum. The authors’ main finding is displayed in the chart below.
The x-axis is divided into ten deciles of cognitive ability. What’s a decile? Well, the first decile comprises the lowest-scoring 10%, the second decile comprises the next lowest-scoring 10%, and so on. And the tenth decile comprises the highest-scoring 10%. Each bar corresponds to the percentage of people in the relevant decile (shown on the y-axis) who said they voted Remain.
As you can see, around 40% of respondents in the lowest decile of cognitive ability said they voted Remain, compared to around 70% of those in the highest decile. So a clear majority of the most intelligent respondents supported Remain rather than Leave.
Dawson and Baker ran a multivariate analysis, and found that cognitive ability remained an important predictor of voting Remain when controlling for age, gender, education, political party and various other factors.
Their findings don’t actually come as a big surprise. At least two studies have already reported an advantage for Remain supporters on numerical reasoning – which is one component of cognitive ability. And another study (by yours truly) reported a positive association between average cognitive ability and intention to vote Remain at the level of local authorities.
What does come as a surprise is the authors’ interpretation. They suggest that “erroneous reporting surrounding the referendum might have complicated personal decision making, especially for those with low cognitive ability”. And say “it is also possible that those with lower levels of cognitive ability… are more receptive to divisive ideas”.
“If those lower in cognitively ability are more vulnerable to misinformation,” the authors write, “then political campaigns based on (mis/dis) information may prevail depending on the ability distribution of the electorate.” The implication being that the Brexit campaign was based, to a larger extent than the Remain campaign, on “misinformation”.
I’m not convinced. The Brexit campaign having (allegedly) engaged in “erroneous reporting” and “misinformation”, and having (allegedly) promoted “divisive ideas”, is not a plausible explanation for the fact that less intelligent people were more likely to vote Leave.
To begin with, one can dispute that the Brexit campaign did engage in “erroneous reporting” and “misinformation”, and did promote “divisive ideas”, to a greater extent than the Remain campaign.
More importantly, the referendum was not primarily a disagreement over facts. It was a disagreement over values. The Leave side valued national sovereignty and control over immigration, while the Remain side valued being part of a large trade bloc, as well as being able to live and work in other European countries. Neither perspective is obviously wrong; each has to be argued on its merits.
Where cognitive ability comes in is that the Leave side’s values appealed more to those who score lower on that trait. Indeed, it has long been known that less intelligent people tend to have more socially conservative attitudes, particularly on issues like immigration. So it’s hardly surprising they were more likely to vote for the side representing socially conservative values.
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Many here on DS have come to the conclusion that there is a sub-group within the cohort labelled ‘intelligent.’ That sub-group is the intelligent stupid.
Those that might be considered intelligent remoaners therefore definitely belong within the group christened intelligent stupid.
Indeed. Most of my friends, acquaintances and work colleagues are “intelligent” – above average IQ most likely, certainly mainly educated to degree level and doing brain work jobs. They almost all went along with every aspect of the covid folly and evil, including getting themselves “vaccinated” with what turns out to have been something less than “safe and effective”. And none of them seem to want to admit they were wrong. And they refused to engage with me at the time, often using emotional language. Most of them were remainers too, who often argued from an emotional standpoint rather than a rational one. Perhaps “intelligence” is over-rated…
It totally is over-rated. The people who went along with the scamdemic did it for the same reasons as many go along with things that are evidently against their own interests, such as illegal immigration and cutting off a nation’s source of power – the MSM is captured and presents the same message. This message is boosted by repeating it and repeating it until people find it hard to believe otherwise, which in turn is reinforced by saying only unintelligent people would believe otherwise. This goes beyond intellect and relates to one’s own self-confidence and being able to stand your ground.
Indeed. They seem more susceptible to needing to be seen having and expressing the “right” views.
Like most of us who voted out, do not think of ourselves of being of lower intellect, and did have a good grasp of the political situation. However, the Brexit voting majority who are being deemed as being thick by the remain elites, were educated by a system overseen by those very elites decrying us as being thick. Therefore it is the fault of the remain elite that we voted for Brexit. Hoorah!
Lol – they obviously didn’t “educate” them hard enough! In the schools now they are making sure the same mistakes do not happen again and that people vote “correctly” in future.
Yep, The education system, the MSM, the cancel culture, etc, they will never run out of those they despise, as long as they themselves see and hold themselves as a paragon of purported virtue, a true tyranny.
Sorry I am not ignoring you on the other article about Geert Wilders. They seem to have stopped taking any more comments under that article. ——We can have a virtual drink together sometime though since we cannot have a real one….Mine is glass of vintage Port —-Cheers. —–But yes Group think is behind all of the Pandemic, Brexit, Climate junk, etc etc.——- People feel safe sticking with the herd. ——Check out books by Douglas Murray if you have not done so already.
I view this as a problem of analysing people from only one important viewpoint (cognitive ability measured in usually practicable skill sets) as such it undervalues other important measures of mental ability including, lateral, independent, ethical and intuitive thinking.
The 4 categories of people I often view the populations are (1&2 will not on average score high on standardised cognitive tests)
(1) Idiot Savant: Lacks generalised knowledge however due to expertise in their own particular, often mundane field of knowledge and their generalised application of common truths due to a necessity for self sufficiency to survive, exceed highly educated/indoctrinated people in intuition, translating to wisdom and a strong ethical code in later life. (S/M)
(2) Maverick: They excel at applying generalised rules of common sense that emphasise the requirement of theory meeting reality. Usually they will share the Savant idiots ability to have attained a high level of technical attainment in one or many skills. Often, although not necessarily, this knowledge was gained autodidactically. Often stubbornly independent this can lead to loner behaviour. Friends will be few but well chosen. (I/C)
(3) Savant Idiot: average generalised knowledge base lacking mundane experience but may be extremely capable in a highly specific field that requires extensive technical study. This may lead to an overinflated sense of both security and superiority however it is not well founded for general application. This type is inflexible and lacks deep reflection and little concern for the ethical realm seeing it in a utilitarian fashion. (M/S)
(4) :Midwit: Will have succeeded at generalised knowledge attainment but will usually fail to achieve a high technical level of specialty. They will excel in socially driven occupations viewing attainment in social rank and reputation in a collective often by integrating their personality into that group and taking cues from and imitating leaders in said collective. (C/I)
Intelligent does not mean smart.
Great dumbness requires great intelligence.
While interesting, no Remainer would ever lower themselves to believe facts that they hadn’t made up themselves. So, its pretty futile research.
Funded by Remain campaigners.
The entire premise of this stupid study is idiotic. I never met a Remaintard who could give me any factual, coherent information on why the UK should remain. Nor did they know much about the EU, its history, institutions, form of governance, budget size, regulations or control of most nation’s fiscal, economic or social and border policies. Nor could they name an EU MP or more than 1 or 2 Eurocrats.
In fact the Remaintards were in the main ignorant German-empire loving douce bags, with quite low cognition.
Well – as an admittedly stupid old Brexiteer I will admit to experiencing a pleasant glow in 2016 when the majority of British folk voted for Brexit. At last, I thought, we could now govern our own lives instead of being ruled by the Obergruppenfuhrers in Yurp. But I reckoned without the sad truth that our home-grown lawmakers were no longer man enough for the task in hand. Having had their balls removed early on, the governing elite didn’t know how to govern any more, and their only panicked response was to try and reverse the will of the people. And thus it has continued ever since. I will admit to being at fault to imagine that having fought our way to some semblance of freedom our government would do its best to bring about our wishes. Mea bloody culpa.
Define intelligence and then describe the method of measuring it.
That problem makes “How many beans make five?” look simple.
Dawson & Baker probably rely, for at least half their variance, on the “Sheepdog Test”: How many hoops can you jump through in a given time?
‘Carl also finds evidence of a moderate positive correlation between trust in experts and IQ.’
‘Therefore, the positive relationship between cognitive ability and voting Remain could be attributable for those higher in cognitive function to place a greater weight on the opinion of experts.
A final note is that our dependent variable is self-reported which may induce bias, for instance, social desirability bias.’
Kaboom!
‘….social desirability bias becomes more prevalent in collectivist societies’
Robertson and Fadil, 2009
Consequently it is clear that big state, bloated public sector collectivism leads to social desirability bias leads to voting Remain leads to trying to overturn the result of the referendum……..
Socialist fascism.
I voted Brexit and I’m intelligent.
Me too!
And me.
(The downtickers and trolls will love this
).
Some researchers and support staff who would no doubt fall into the high intelligence category acted like the sky was going to fall on their head with Brexit.
That seemed to be more a concern about funding and job security. Nothing high-brow about that.
They keep banging on about the Brexit Bus, but from what I remember there was fear porn on both sides…So how much is the NHS getting now….and maybe they need to look at where all the funding goes into. In the old days it was recognised that manipulation was used in political sloganeering before an election. Nothing new under the sun, only when certain vested interests wants to gaslight the public.
That bit about the values could be worded a bit better.
It reads as if brexit voters are against a sound trading bloc and the ability to live and work in other countries. I should think the majority have no problem with those things in principle, but rather that, contrary to prior to the situation before 2000, do not wish to accept them when they are predicated on hundreds of millions of people being subject to the dictats of a bunch of self-appointed, smarmy, unaccountable, thieving bureaucrats who are leading all of Europe into hell.
I would vote Nexit in a heartbeat, but that doesn’t mean I think there should be no trading block or movement of people – just that final decisions about what happens with national funds should remain with national representatives who must account to their voters, rather than the disgraceful buck-passing we see. When I first lived in the UK in the early 1990s I was still subject to the rules that you had to have a job or source of income, you couldn’t just move over and start holding your hand out – ditto for NL. There is nothing wrong with setting sensible restrictions on free movement and certainly nothing wrong with restricting the power of the scum that inhabit Brussels. People on all sides of the political spectrum can see things are going very wrong in Europe, many do not speak out precisely because of this childish and pathetic bullying of calling you stupid or unintelligent if you do.
Those of us who would vote ‘Out’ would do so because we believe living a perhaps less convenient life but one of our choosing according to laws and customs the majority of us support and can have a say on is more important than bending the knee to a bunch of megalomaniacal politicians.
On a more anecdotal note, when I have spoken to Brits who were in favour of remain, their arguments for and knowledge of Europe were frequently very poor and ill-informed, the brexit voters I spoke to generally had much better arguments and knowledge of what was going on.
Perhaps suggesting a misguided trust in the mainstream media and authority figures rather than a healthy scepticism of them.
“their arguments for and knowledge of Europe were frequently very poor and ill-informed”
And further to your comments DHJ might I add that the remoaners also were too lazy to do any of their own damned research.
The quote is preceded by “Brits who were in favour of remain”. Unless I’ve missed something, my comment was referring to the remain crowd.
Thanks. A marvellous read.
Very well put. I think free movement can work – witness the United States – but the problem is who controls the outer borders. While the immigrants into the US were well suited to assimilating to what was an Anglo country, this was fine. Now, if you live in a state where most people don’t want any more immigration, you have limited say in it and all you can do is make your state unwelcoming culturally and financially to people you don’t want. Before the mass immigration from non-European countries started, it looked like it was an excellent system because you can go where the work is or where you prefer the culture or the weather or the politics.
Most Remainers I know were Europhiles who wanted easy access to a holiday home in France or for their kids to go and work in Italy or just for the horrid Gammon UK to be part of “sophisticated” continental Europe, and didn’t want to be seen siding with obvious horrid racists who would vote to leave. It seemed mainly an emotional response, not a rational one arrived at by exercising their superior “intelligence”.
I recall being at work when people were discussing what to vote for in 2016. ——–People turned to me and asked “Are you voting to stay in the EU or leave”? ——-I said ” Who is the President of the United States”? —–Everyone shouted “OBAMA” . ——-Then I asked “Who is the President of the EU”? ——There was a stony silence. No one could answer. ————–Not so “intelligent” after all then ———–
We saw a pro EU march in London in September. Most of them couldn’t even say what they missed about the EU. They were that intelligent.
[Comment has been edited to read correctly]
Are there some missed or mis-typed words in the above?
[see above, agree, an educated guess has been made!]
Much appreciated.
For “better educated” read got themselves into massive debt studying for a crappy degree.
“while the Remain side valued being part of a large trade bloc, as well as being able to live and work in other European countries”
Most of the Remain side were part of the collective Covid nightmare, is that same demographic concerned about Agenda 2030 that has a problem with all freedoms including travel!
Carl Sagan:
I work with some of the most academically intelligent people in the UK, the vast majority from Oxbridge, and I can without any shadow of doubt that this quote is 100% accurate. What I would also say is that these very same people are more easily manipulated into the accepted group-think of the time. They are more naive, less likely to want to rock the boat, and far easier to manipulate; all you need to do to herd these people is simply to tell them that if you believe a certain thing then that shows your superior intelligence.
The thing that really annoyed me was the way leading Remainers e.g. Tony Blair, kept talking about leaving Europe, instead of leaving the European Union and they did it deliberately. I know of two people personally that thought we were voting on literally leaving the continent of Europe and we would therefore no longer be European. How many other people thought that? If that is being intelligent, God help us.
My parents, both of my brothers and I have IQs well above 130 and we all voted Leave without any hesitation, as did my sisters-in-law and all my nephews and my niece. It is total nonsense what is being said and so what if people overall were less intelligent. It didn’t and doesn’t give them the right to ignore or frustrate the result.
I was very happy at the thought of leaving Europe because that meant leaving the EU and anyway I have NEVER considered myself as a European. English first, British second and that’s it.
Part of the reason for being so attached to my Englishness is that it is resolutely not European.
I enjoy Europe and the countries thereof. I like the people, especially the Spanish but our differences are important. The real travesty, the real disgrace is those treasonous bastards in government and civil service who are refusing to carry out the people’s mandate.
Never forget, never forgive.
I agree with you about not considering myself to be European, although I consider myself to be British, as I have Scottish and English blood from my father and Irish and Welsh blood from my mother.
It was that they specifically said Europe and not the EU, to get some people to vote remain.
Whenever you read “A study finds” be aware that you are being played, and it doesn’t require much “intelligence” to realise that. yet millions voted to REMAIN in the Protection Racket because they don’t have the savvy to check other sources of information and simply tune into the mainstream news at 6 where they get bombarded with leftist propaganda on everything from climate to gender and race…….Not so “intelligent after all are they?
This is as it should be. In the 1960s Eric Hofstadder wrote a book called Anti-Intellectulaism in American life. The introduction discussed English anti-intellctualism and its American counterpart and attempted to derive a measure of both. This wasn’t disparagement merely a deep understanding of Anglo-Saxon culture. Peter Ackroyd wrote a book called Albion where he talked about the English consciousness being about the curved line. But this is all beside the point. You don’t need intelligence to see that you can’t get a doctor’s appointment or that your granny no longer feels safe in an area which has changed so much in recent years. Lets not pretend that this discussion is some prissy affair. It is the lived reality of most of the people in this country. Every year another million or so and we should just accept it and perhaps even welcome it given the deleterious effects on our standard of living. To me it is utterly disgusting. I have lived in less advanced countries and there would be revolution overnight if they tried something like this.
Doesn’t take a lot if intelligence to keep the aspidistra flyng but it takes something. How long has it been since we replaced the literary greats with sicentific greats? Fifty years max and it was merely a usurpation by default. A sense of filling a vacuum. We allowed the vacuum and they were more than happy to fill it.
What foxes me is how the majority of highly educated people consistently arrive at the wrong conclusion. Does education damage consequential IQ? Serious question.
Two recent examples illustrate this: “yes, I’ll have my 9th booster now,” and “I stand with Ukraine,” and will refuse to take responsibility for the subsequent decimations of the people and country that any fule knew would happen.
The Conservative party is sometimes called “the stupid party.” It took me many years to realise this is not an insult. Rather, it’s a compliment to the permanence of Conservative values. No matter how half-witted are the people who implement those values, they endure. It’s like Warren Buffett wanting to invest in a company so good an idiot could run it, because, sooner or later, one will.
But what is “intelligence”? Pick at random a professor from Imperial. Put him on a desert island. Would he be “intelligent” enough to survive?
ps I hope not.
I’m old enough to remember the original EEC system based around free(er) trade plus some annoying “harmonisation”. Then it grew into a monster, inevitable when beauraucrats are given an inch.
However, since supposedly leaving, I don’t see any great improvement. Certainly not “controlling our own borders”. We had become so reliant and entwined in the Bloc that leaving wasn’t really likely or possible whatever we might have voted or wished for.
Leaving the EU required a single-minded determination on the part of government and civil service to ensure leave became LEAVE.
That is all plus commitment and hard work.
Behind this and previous “research” is an intellectual arrogance/ snobbery which I always find rather amusing as virtually all those I know who could be described as highly intelligent Remain voters are the sort of people who rarely question officialdom and accepted hook line and sinker Government pronouncements on Covid etc with little question. Most are university educated and instead of coming out of University with questioning and enquiring minds have instead simply acquired a set of blinkers. Many I spoke to during and before the referendum didn’t have a clue as to how the EU worked or primacy of EU legislation but they liked being part of it because it made travel easier, ensured in their view European peace and free trade, both points which are very debatable.
More intelligent compared to what?