Brain indices of disagreement with one’s social values predict EU referendum voting behavior

Brain indices of disagreement with one’s social values predict EU referendum voting behavior. Giulia Galli, Miroslav Sirota, Maurizio Materassi, Francesca Zaninotto, and Philip Terry. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, nsx105, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx105

Abstract: Pre-electoral surveys typically attempt, and sometimes fail, to predict voting behavior on the basis of explicit measures of agreement or disagreement with a candidate or political position. Here, we assessed whether a specific brain signature of disagreement with one’s social values, the event-related potential component N400, could be predictive of voting behavior. We examined this possibility in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom. In the five weeks preceding the referendum, we recorded the N400 while participants with different vote intentions expressed their agreement or disagreement with pro- and against-EU statements. We showed that the N400 responded to statements incongruent with one’s view regarding the EU. Crucially, this effect predicted actual voting behavior in decided as well as undecided voters. The N400 was a better predictor of voting choice than an explicit index of preference based on the behavioral responses. Our findings demonstrate that well-defined patterns of brain activity can forecast future voting behavior.

Keywords: Event-related potentials, N400, voting behaviour, social beliefs