Abstract
People often vote against the political establishment, as underscored by “Brexit” and the Trump election. The current contribution proposes that overclaiming one’s own knowledge predicts anti-establishment voting. We tested this idea in the context of a Dutch referendum on a European Union treaty with a clear pro- versus anti-establishment voting option. In a first wave (6 weeks before the referendum), Dutch citizens indicated their self-perceived understanding of the treaty, after which we tested their actual knowledge. We also measured participants’ general tendency to overclaim knowledge by assessing their familiarity with nonexisting stimuli. In a second wave shortly after the referendum, we asked participants what they had voted. Results revealed that increased self-perceived understanding yet decreased actual knowledge of the treaty, and general knowledge overclaiming, predicted an anti-establishment vote. Furthermore, these effects were most pronounced among right-wing extremists. We conclude that knowledge overclaiming predicts anti-establishment voting, particularly at the radical right.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 256-363 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Social Psychological and Personality Science |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 18 Jul 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Knowledge overclaiming
- anti-establishment voting
- Populism
- Extremism
- Radicalism
- Voting behaviour
- knowledge overclaiming
- populism
- overconfidence
- radical politics