Brexit: The influence of motivation to respond without prejudice, willingness to disagree, and attitudes to immigration

Britain’s unexpected vote to leave the European Union (Brexit) in June 2016 has proved divisive and damaging both within the UK and internationally. Across two correlational studies the current research proposed a model to explain the Brexit vote, with attitudes to immigration and Willingness to Disagree (WD) as direct predictors of the referendum result, and internal (IMS) and external (EMS) motivation to respond without prejudice as indirect predictors. Study 1 (N = 353) and Study 2 (N = 363) both showed good fit with the model and respectively explained 48% and 46% of the referendum result. More positive attitudes to immigration predicted a vote to remain. Higher IMS and lower EMS predicted a vote to remain, fully mediated by attitudes to immigration. In Study 1, lower WD also predicted a vote to remain, both directly and indirectly via attitudes to immigration, although this was not replicated in Study 2. These results are discussed both in relation to the Brexit result, and the implications for motivation to respond without prejudice, willingness to disagree and political correctness more generally.