I voted to stay and lost. What next Britain?

Where next for Brexit Britain?

This post has a bit less psychology and a bit more opinion on Brexit and our society.

questionmarkI voted to stay, and we lost. That is one side effect of democracy.  In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, half the population of the UK is surprised.  A good chunk of that half is also very angry (I was this morning for sure). Social media today is full of people berating Leave voters for being ‘stupid’, ‘selfish’ or ‘racist’. People need to blow off steam, but they also need to step back and consider what comes next, and who we want to be as a nation.

Many commentators have (and I am sure will continue to) split the in and out voters along broad lines – haves and have nots, urban vs. rural and young versus old. This is simplistic stereotyping at its very worst.  I bet you within a mile of me I can find a young urbinate who voted leave and an old farmer who voted stay.  I can also find bright and not-so-bright people in both camps, and those with strong (and absent) moral compasses too.  We know from social psychology categorising people in this way reduces them to a few basic attributes and removed individual difference. It also fosters negative interactions between groups which increases the likelihood of conflict and makes agreement harder. Be under no illusion we need to avoid this.

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