Twice as many hold a negative view
Following Andrew Tate’s rise to prominence on social media platforms like TikTok, many have expressed concern about the impact that his misogynistic views are having on boys and young men. A YouGov study in May examined attitudes among young men towards Tate and his beliefs, and now a new YouGov Children’s Omnibus survey does the same for boys.
Overall, 54% of children aged 6-15 have heard of Tate, including 60% of boys that age. Among boys aged 13-15 that figure increases to 84%.
One in six 6-15 year old boys (17%) have a positive opinion of Andrew Tate, including 23% of 13-15 year olds.
By contrast, 56% of all boys in the 6-15 year old age group have a negative opinion of Tate, including 63% of 13-15 year olds.
Similar numbers of boys say they agree with the sort of things Andrew Tate says ‘in general’ as have a positive view of him. However, as with our adult study, our research again shows that Tate’s views on women are less appealing to boys than his views on work and success, and masculinity.
One in eight boys aged 6-15 (12%) say they agree with Tate’s views on women, compared to 17% of his views on masculinity and what it means to be a man, and 20% for his views on work and success.
More boys disagree with Tate’s views on women than agree – 31% of all 6-15 year old boys, rising to 56% among 13-15 year olds (with the bulk of the rest either unaware of Tate in general or his views on women specifically).
It should also be noted that many in the adult version of the study who said they agreed with Andrew Tate’s views on women did not consider some of the more notable accusations of his views (e.g. that it can be a woman’s fault if she was raped) to be fair representations of his views, indicating that they too do not personally hold that view. It should therefore not be taken as read that a boy saying they agree with Andrew Tate’s views of women in general necessarily agrees with individual opinions Tate has expressed. (Due to the sensitive nature of the topics on which Tate has spoken, replication of this portion of the adult survey was not possible among a sample of children)
While Andrew Tate’s views on work and masculinity are more favourably seen among the oldest boys (28% in the case of the former and 24% in the case of the latter), they are still outnumbered by the number with a negative view (35% and 39%, respectively).
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
