Academics from an anti-Brexit university have portrayed people who voted to leave the EU as ‘narcissists’ who dislike foreigners.
The Goldsmiths College researchers suggested the 17 million people who voted Leave were motivated by xenophobia and were similar to Donald Trump supporters.
The findings were based on just 161 leave voters and 345 remain voters paid to participate in an online survey.
Academics from an anti-Brexit university have portrayed people who voted to leave the EU as ‘narcissists’ who dislike foreigners. Pictured is a member of the English Defence League (EDL)
Critics said Goldsmiths anti-Brexit stance as an institution and the research it produced was ‘denigrating good people’.
Goldsmith’s College lecturers made the claims in a research paper investigating the roots of prejudice.
Goldsmiths’ most recent annual report declares that Britain’s EU departure is a ‘significant risk’ to the university’s funds – which could cost it millions of pounds and lead to reduced student numbers.
The college said in the 2015/16 report: ‘The UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the related tightening of UK immigration policy (with no sign of any leniency for international students) together present a significant risk to Goldsmiths.’
The university in south London’s edgy New Cross area gets 10 per cent of its funding – £10million ($13m) – from some 1,200 EU students and £2.3 million ($3.5m) in EU research group income.
Around 300 of the university’s 1,100 academic staff are also EU citizens from outside of Britain.
Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education said he was not surprised that Goldsmiths college had produced research critical of Brexit as universities were all about making money by having the highest number of students.
He said: ‘Universities in the UK are a racket. They have a vested interest of universities to preserve the status quo and to maximise student numbers.
‘They are denigrating good people. There is an institutional bias against Brexit. It’s incredible to them. They are very happy to impose restraints on freedom of speech – universities are no-go areas for freedom of speech if your views don’t coincide with Remain.
‘There’s a form of fascism on campus – people aren’t able to speak freely. Ninety per cent of university lecturers are pro remain, and they are trying to obliterate this country’s national identity’, he said.
Mr McGovern claimed schools are brain washing people into thinking the only future we can have is in the European Union with unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.
Fear of immigrants and foreigners is associated with support for Brexit, according to studies from a team of international researchers
In the study, funded by the Portuguese government Lead researcher Dr Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, from Goldsmiths and colleagues investigated the role of xenophobia in the referendum.
They found ‘predictors of prejudice’ were linked to a tendency to back Brexit and be happy with the referendum’s outcome, regardless of age, gender or education.
A further assessment of personality types showed people who felt threatened by immigrants fell into three distinct groups.
The study shows that xenophobia, or a fear of other groups, was a strong predictor of a Brexit vote regardless of people’s age, gender or education
Some were ‘authoritarian’ or ‘socially dominant’ while others were described as ‘collective narcissists’ – people who believe that the UK’s ‘unique greatness’.
Dr Golec de Zavala said: ‘Collective narcissism is not a good attitude to have. We should study how this becomes a group norm and find ways of preventing it from happening and spreading.
‘From Brexit, Trump and support for Vladimir Putin in Russia to the nationalist, ultra-conservative government in Poland, studies from ours and other labs show that collective narcissism systematically predicts prejudice, aggression and a tendency to interpret innocent behaviours as provocation to the national group.’
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the authors said the Brexit vote was motivated by different concerns instigating prejudice.’
Goldsmiths attracted controversy recently when the Student’s Union’s diversity officer, Mustafa Bahar tweeted ‘kill all white men’ in 2015– although race hate charges against her were later dropped and that white people and all men were banned from attending a political meeting.
‘The vote to leave the EU represents one of the biggest changes to Britain in a generation and as such will inevitably be a considerable focus of research’, a spokesperson from Goldsmiths said.
‘This work shows that our academics are prepared to engage with such important issues to help further robust debate and critical thinking – while upholding the right to freedom of speech.’