Einfaches Denken und Ablehnen der Demokratie haben eine „auffallend“ starke Verbindung. Menschen, denen es fehlte, „aktiv aufgeschlossen“ zu denken-die Tendenz, gegensätzliche Standpunkte in Betracht zu ziehen und die Überzeugungen auf der Grundlage von Beweisen zu überarbeiten-, waren eher gegen demokratische Grundsätze der Kern, insbesondere freien Wahlen.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.70062

From the linked article:

**Simplistic thinking and rejecting democracy: Scientists find “strikingly” strong link**

People who want to uphold the current political system and people who want to tear it down may have more in common than it seems. A new study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences provides evidence that antidemocratic attitudes are not tied to one single ideology. Instead, a broad range of psychological tendencies, beliefs, and thinking styles — from authoritarianism and social dominance to distrust in elites and chaotic thinking — were linked to support for ideas that go against liberal democratic principles. These effects were especially strong when individuals viewed the political system as illegitimate.

These associations remained strong even when accounting for other psychological traits and demographic factors. Notably, **people who lacked what the researchers called “actively open-minded thinking” — a tendency to consider opposing viewpoints and revise beliefs based on evidence — were more likely to oppose core democratic principles, especially free elections**. This thinking style turned out to be one of the most consistent predictors of antidemocratic attitudes.