Much ground has been covered regarding Brexit, but what of the psychological traits and personalities of those that voted leave or remain? Postgraduate researcher聽Jay Rowe聽is on a mission to find out.
Brexit - the never-ending questions
Jay has always been interested in politics, but had drifted away from it as an academic discipline. However, his interest was piqued once more when he saw a PhD position open up at the University鈥檚 Centre for Brexit Studies. 鈥淚 was never expecting to come back and study a PhD,鈥� Jay reveals. 鈥淏ut I wanted to know why Brexit happened 鈥� I think we all did, really. I don鈥檛 think anyone expected it. It had always been a curious question for me and it was almost serendipitous that the subject came up.鈥�
Leave or remain?
Jay鈥檚 research project looks into the changing attitudes of Brexit voters, but when it came to drilling down to a specific area, gender or demographic, a whole different route was suggested. 鈥淢y supervisor, Rebecca Semmens-Wheeler, is from a psychology background and she gave me the idea to look into different personality groups and psychological traits,鈥� Jay explains.
Principally, Jay is looking into two specific traits:
- Collective narcissism:聽People who take offence and umbrage when a group (or nation) they belong to is criticised or at risk;
- Collective self-esteem:聽An aspect of an individual鈥檚 self-image that stems from how the individual interacts with others and the groups that the individual is a part of.
While Jay had no prior experience of studying such rich psychological areas, he is excited about the results he鈥檒l find. 鈥淚鈥檓 hoping to gather a good split between personality traits and the ways that they voted,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e'll be using ratings scales which have been used for both collective narcissism and collective self-esteem, and it鈥檚 important we don鈥檛 pre-judge the outcome; often we assume which way people voted, so it鈥檚 important that we use this research to challenge those assumptions.鈥�
Independent learning聽
Jay is still at an early stage of his research, but already feels like a valued member of the University. 鈥淚鈥檓 an independent learner, but I like having regular contact with my supervisors, who have been more than happy to oblige,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 meet up with my whole supervisory team every couple of weeks to hear feedback or just receive emotional support. It鈥檚 been a really great experience so far.
鈥淭he best thing about being a PhD student here is that it鈥檚 very diverse. People from many different walks of life come here and study some incredible things. It鈥檚 a very interesting place to be.鈥�