Boris Johnson’s call to “take back control” in the 2016 EU referendum was a rallying cry that cut across political parties and split families, but quite why it had such a wide appeal has had academics puzzled. Now researchers say a fervour for Brexit could at least in part be linked to the way individuals process information.

Research has revealed that those in favour of cutting loose from the EU are more categorical and “think outside the box” less than those who favour remain, with a stronger dislike for uncertainty and a greater love of daily routine.



“What we were interested in is really trying to get at the psychological processes that shape our nationalistic attitudes [and] how we evaluate policy,” said Leor Zmigrod, first author of the study from the University of Cambridge.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved more than 330 UK residents recruited online, just over 62% of whom voted to remain in the EU.



Each participant completed a number of tasks, including choosing the correct image to complete a sequence of shapes for which the underlying rule could suddenly change, and coming up with a word that could be linked to other words – for example, “fire” could be linked to fly, fighter and cracker.



Participants also completed a number of questionnaires designed to probe attitudes including their response to uncertainty, having a routine, nationalism, political conservatism, authoritarianism, Brexit, immigration and how British or European they felt. Participants’ personalities were also examined.

The results reveal that while Brexit can get many people hot under the collar, it is not just emotions that underpin which vote they cast.

When factors including age, sex and education levels were taken into account, Brexit support was linked to more nationalistic, authoritarian and conservative attitudes, as well as support for the political and social status quo.



Leave voters were also found, from self-reported questionnaires, to be more conscientious and emotionally stable than Remain voters, and more likely to put success down to their own skills and hard work.

But the study also showed the importance of ways of thinking. Among the findings, a lower propensity to think creatively and a greater tendency to be categorical appeared to help drive ideologies linked to support of Brexit, opposition towards immigration and free movement of labour, and agreement with Theresa May’s controversial statement that a “citizen of the world is a citizen of nowhere”.

The analysis suggests differences in “cognitive flexibility” could play a large role in shaping how we vote, but Zmigrod said that was not the whole story. “There are so many other factors that shape our political attitudes [and] our ideologies that cognitive flexibility is really just one piece of a much more intricate puzzle,” she said.

Zmigrod also stressed that the findings cannot be generalised to individuals, noting that “simply because you are a Remain voter, it doesn’t mean that you are cognitively flexible”.