Why populism appeals to less brainy EU voters [barf]

EU Observer ^ | 24 Nov 2023 15:20 | Andrew Rettman

[Olog-hai]

People who voted for Brexit tended to be less clever, new research shows, in findings that also shed light on the appeal of EU populists, such as Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

Some 73% of people in the smartest top 10% of the British population voted to stay in the EU back in 2016, according to a fresh study by the University of Bath in the UK. Just 40% of those at the other end of the spectrum (the least-smart 10%) voted to remain. And even in couples — where people had a similar age, education, income-level, and cultural background — if one partner voted to remain and the other voted to leave, the remain-voter tended to be the cleverer of the two.

“We find that a one standard deviation increase in cognitive ability, all else being equal, increases the likelihood of a remain vote by 9.7%,” the study said.

When the paper came out, on Wednesday (22 November), it caused a small “storm” on social media, one of its authors, Chris Dawson, told EUobserver. “I also got a few emails from people explaining the reasons why they voted [leave] and that they didn’t have low cognitive ability — a few of those, but nothing too bad,” he said. But if anybody felt offended by his research, then they shouldn’t take it personally, he explained. […]

Cognitive ability is also related to wishful thinking — people with lower ability are far more optimistic about the future. They’re more likely to believe in fanciful promises, even if there’s only a tiny chance they could come true,” Dawson said. “They don’t tend to take the options of experts seriously. They’re more likely to mistrust experts,” he added. And “they’re also more attracted to divisive messages, such as right-wing populist views,” he said. …

[CoastWatcher]

It takes 0.87 Pounds to buy 1 Euro.

Now who is the smart one?