The Brexit People

Abstract

Having commandeered the body politic, Brexit reflects both individual and group psychologies. In the public mind, major political figures have become caricatures of different personality types, as well as vehicles for collectively held group stereotypes, such as sexism. At the highest level of politics, Brexit draws attention to the important issue of how women leaders are selected, treated, and blamed. Brexit also offers a case study in group dynamics, where phenomena such as false consensus, groupthink, and group polarization dominate the lived experience. This chapter focuses on the individual and group psychology of Brexit, and the important fact that Brexit is not a mere ‘event’ than ‘happened’, but a self-authored, self-imposed, national social construction.