New research explores why some voters are more susceptible to 'demagogue' candidates Author: J.D. Warren Share This: Many low-education voters who embrace social welfare programs vote against their own beliefs, new UC Riverside research holds. The mitigating factor is education: The more education one has, the more likely one is to stick to one’s policy preferences. “It means candidates who employ tactics such as fear and attaching patriotism to certain concepts can persuade people to vote for candidates who are in opposition to their social beliefs,” Diogo Ferrari, a professor of political science at UC Riverside, wrote in his recently published paper, “Education, Belief Structures, Support for Welfare Policies, and Vote,” published in the journal Education & Society.