New Survey: Young Men’s Trust in Musk, Tate, and Other Right Wing Online Influencers Has Exploded

Aug 12, 2024

Young Men Research Initiative today released new survey data of American young men’s media consumption and influencers, sports, views on masculinity as well as their romantic relationships.

As Elon Musk plans to interview Donald Trump today, he will be providing a powerful megaphone for the former president, who he has also endorsed. 68% of young men in our survey said they “like” Musk, among the highest influencers tested. As one explanation, the survey found that “entrepreneur” was the most admired career among young men, particularly for young black men. Wrestlers like “The Rock” and John Cena were THE most liked influencers tested, even more than top professional athletes, suggesting some opportunities for the left to cultivate popular male influencers that are not already politically coded.

In addition to Musk, we find that new right influencers have tremendous resonance with this audience. Andrew Tate, who is extremely active on Twitter and has stoked far-right riots in the UK this month, is not a fringe figure: he is liked by half of young men (half of those claim they don’t trust his views, but they are still absorbing them). Although he has not been as studied in the United States, YMRI’s data is higher than the 20% of 18-23 year old men who said they trusted Tate in a 2023 Equimundo survey. In the UK, Hope Not Hate has found that 45% of 16-24 year old males have a positive opinion of Tate, and in Australia, 25% of 12-18 year old males say they look up to Andrew Tate as a role model.

Shauna Daly, Co-Founder of YMRI, said “Young men’s movement to the right is being fueled by their consumption of right-leaning media and influencers, with little competition from comparable figures on the left. The trust young American men have in Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and others impacts not only their vote choice, but also their offline actions, as we have seen in the UK this month, and their views of women. This challenge requires an urgency and focus–in studying the problem, and in creating competitive media and communications.”

YMRI had earlier released survey data showing Kamala Harris with a slight lead among young men over President Trump. Today, Won’t PAC Down released data today showing that while young women have moved +28 for Harris in the last month, young men moved only +2.

Maybe the biggest surprise in the YMRI survey? The #1 sport young men say they follow is soccer, at 60%. While other sports are largely coded as Republican- or Democratic-leaning, soccer appears to be an extremely popular blank slate, and an untapped opportunity for civic engagement.

Influencers

Elon Musk: 45% of young men say they "like and trust" his views, and an additional 23% say they like "but generally don’t trust" his views (a distinction that some social scientists view with skepticism)
- “Entrepreneur” was the most admired career among young men, particularly for young black men- indicating perhaps why Musk is so popular
Wrestlers like “The Rock” and John Cena were THE most liked influencers tested, even more than top professional athletes, suggesting some opportunities for the left to cultivate popular male influencers that are not already politically coded
Andrew Tate: 27% like and trust his views, 23% like but don't trust his views
Joe Rogan: 36% like and trust, 29% like but don't trust his views
Jordan Peterson: 34% like and trust, 22% like but don't trust his views
Ben Shapiro: 25% like and trust, 23% like but don't trust his views

Platforms

Twitter
- 52% of our survey said they have used Twitter in the last week
  - YMRI’s research finds that X/Twitter use by young men has increased over the same period that today’s Washington Post found Elon Musk’s posts had increased in frequency and movement to the right
  - This is an increase from other surveys. A Change Research survey last year found that 33% of young men said they regularly used X/Twitter, and the IOP at Harvard found this year that 18% regularly access it *for news.* Pew found only 22 percent of all Americans said they regularly used Twitter.
- Of those, 52% say they use it 2+ hours per day
- 64% of young black men say they've used Twitter in the last week
Youtube
- 3/5 of the cohort uses Youtube 2+ hours per day (83% said they had used Youtube in the last week, and 75% of those said it was 2 or more hours per day)
The most popular content was 1) Gaming, 2) Comedy, and 3) Sports
- Comedy was particularly popular among Latino and White young men
- Sports were particularly popular among Black young men

Masculinity

“Protecting your family” was by far the most commonly selected quality for what it means to be a man, across all racial and education cohorts, followed by “Honesty”
“Confidence” and “Helping People Who Need It” were the next most selected qualities

Romantic Relationships

38% of the cohort say they have never been in a serious relationship
About half agree with all of the following statements: “A serious relationship is too big a time commitment”; “A serious relationship is too big an emotional commitment;” “A serious relationship is too big a financial commitment;” “When it comes to relationships, there are too many social norms and rules for what is expected of someone like me”

Check out the full data, including crosstabs by race and education, below, and let us know if you find any other interesting insights.

The Yougov survey was conducted from July 9 to July 23, with a sample size of 1,092 men aged 18-29. The survey was fielded from July 9-July 23, 2024 and was weighted according to race/ethnicity, education, vote history, vote turnout history, and geography. The sample margin of error is +/- 3.5 percent.