How many ways to say goodbye? The latent class structure and psychological correlates of European Union sentiment in a large sample of UK adults
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Lewis, Gary J.
de-Wit, Lee
Abstract / Description
Most psychological research on Brexit categorises participants as either leave or remain supporters. In the current study we take a data-driven approach and identify different clusterings of attitudes towards the European Union (EU) using latent class analysis (LCA), as well as how these classes differ across a range of important social and psychological variables. This analysis revealed 10 distinct classes of voters in a large (N = 15860) adult sample of UK citizens using data from the British Election Study. These classes ranged from being quite uniformly pro- or anti-EU in sentiment, to more mixed groups with more complex patterns of attitudes. The classes that included majority-remain supporters were younger and better educated, and self-rated more highly on the measures of actively open-minded thinking, openness, political trust, and external locus of control. The classes that included majority-leave supporters were older and less well educated, and self-rated more highly on the measures of authoritarianism and conscientiousness. However, there were also notable demographic and psychological differences within the classes associated with leavers and remainers. A full consideration of these attitudinal nuances will be necessary to achieve a deeper understanding of why the UK decided to leave the EU.
Keyword(s)
latent class analysis Brexit authoritarianism Big Five personality actively open-minded thinking political trustPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2019-07-02
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
7
Issue
1
Page numbers
556–576
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Lewis, G. J., & de-Wit, L. (2019). How many ways to say goodbye? The latent class structure and psychological correlates of European Union sentiment in a large sample of UK adults. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 7(1), 556-576. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v7i1.981
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jspp.v7i1.981.pdfAdobe PDF - 1.34MBMD5: 16269d2811fd9f7e4ba2f2eb5896c92b
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Lewis, Gary J.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)de-Wit, Lee
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-04-14T11:23:06Z
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Made available on2022-04-14T11:23:06Z
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Date of first publication2019-07-02
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Abstract / DescriptionMost psychological research on Brexit categorises participants as either leave or remain supporters. In the current study we take a data-driven approach and identify different clusterings of attitudes towards the European Union (EU) using latent class analysis (LCA), as well as how these classes differ across a range of important social and psychological variables. This analysis revealed 10 distinct classes of voters in a large (N = 15860) adult sample of UK citizens using data from the British Election Study. These classes ranged from being quite uniformly pro- or anti-EU in sentiment, to more mixed groups with more complex patterns of attitudes. The classes that included majority-remain supporters were younger and better educated, and self-rated more highly on the measures of actively open-minded thinking, openness, political trust, and external locus of control. The classes that included majority-leave supporters were older and less well educated, and self-rated more highly on the measures of authoritarianism and conscientiousness. However, there were also notable demographic and psychological differences within the classes associated with leavers and remainers. A full consideration of these attitudinal nuances will be necessary to achieve a deeper understanding of why the UK decided to leave the EU.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationLewis, G. J., & de-Wit, L. (2019). How many ways to say goodbye? The latent class structure and psychological correlates of European Union sentiment in a large sample of UK adults. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 7(1), 556-576. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v7i1.981en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/5585
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6189
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v7i1.981
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2447
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Keyword(s)latent class analysisen_US
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Keyword(s)Brexiten_US
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Keyword(s)authoritarianismen_US
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Keyword(s)Big Five personalityen_US
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Keyword(s)actively open-minded thinkingen_US
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Keyword(s)political trusten_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleHow many ways to say goodbye? The latent class structure and psychological correlates of European Union sentiment in a large sample of UK adultsen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers556–576
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Volume7
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Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US