Divided minds: The effect of Brexit on implicit prejudice

This paper studies the impact of the Brexit referendum on prejudiced attitudes, focusing specifically on implicit prejudice. The study thereby tests the effect of Brexit on more unconscious, affective, and covert forms of prejudice. The paper utilizes a natural experiment methodology, comparing levels of prejudice right before and after the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. The study finds no overall effect of Brexit on prejudice, but finds a significant and strong effect contingent on political identity: right-wing respondents became implicitly more prejudiced, and left-wing respondents became implicitly less prejudiced. There was no corresponding changes in explicit prejudice for any of the groups. The study concludes by discussing the result in light of previous research, but also how it underscores the importance of using implicit measures in addition to explicit measures when studying prejudiced attitudes.