Does Brexit Trigger Racism? An Experiment Among British and Europeans Residents in the UK

The recent Brexit vote was perceived as a statement against immigration and has repercussions for the 2.5 million EU citizens (or 4% of the population) living in the UK (2011 Census). This project aims to understand the impact of Brexit on the way in which EU citizens and British residents interact. To do that, the research team will combine psychological and economic approaches to measuring individual attitudes towards EU citizens in the UK and test the role of Brexit in triggering anti-social behaviour. The team plans to use an experimental design to assess whether Brexit elicits racial prejudice and how this might affect attitudes towards EU citizens in the UK. The reserachers will apply both explicit and highly sensitive measures of prejudice to determine whether Brexit might even elicit covert feelings of prejudice in pro-European British residents that voted to remain.