AMERICA’S FAVOURITE AND MOST TRUSTED PERSONALITY

 

Based on a recent Ipsos poll of over 2,000 U.S. adults, Betty White stands out as America’s favourite and most trusted personality, and the one whose endorsement of a company would be most likely to drive business.

Betty White gets the highest favourability rating among 100 well-known personalities with 86% of those surveyed expressing a favourable opinion of her (vs. only 3% an unfavourable one). The next most popular celebrities include Denzel Washington (rated favourably by 85%) and Sandra Bullock (84%). Also in the top 10 are: Clint Eastwood (83%), Tom Hanks (81%), Harrison Ford (80%), Kate Middleton – now the Duchess of Cambridge – (79%), Morgan Freeman (also 79%), Will Smith (77%), and Johnny Depp (76%).

Most of the 100 personalities rated in the survey come from the world of entertainment, news and sports. Elected officials were deliberately excluded from the list.

At the other end of the spectrum, only two of the 100 celebrities asked about were viewed unfavourably by an outright majority of respondents: Paris Hilton (with 60% expressing an unfavourable opinion of her vs. only 12% a favourable one) and Charlie Sheen (52% vs. 22%). The next most unpopular personalities among those rated are: Britney Spears and Kanye West (each of whom is viewed unfavourably by 45%), Arnold Schwarzenegger (44%), Tiger Woods (42%), Kim Kardashian (38%), Mel Gibson (33%), Donald Trump (31%), and LeBron James (29%).Several of these 10 personalities – Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears – are more widely disliked by women than they are by men. The others show relatively comparable proportions of male and female detractors.

Among the 100 personalities rated, some show a stronger appeal to one gender or age group.

• Those who are notably more popular among women than among men include: Antonio Banderas (showing a 27-point gap in favourability between women and men), Kate Winslet, Anderson Cooper, Jake Gyllenhall, Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Reese Witherspoon, Ellen DeGeneres and Mariah Carey.
• Many of those who are particularly more popular among men than among women are athletes, including Rafael Nadal (with a gap of 26 points), Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods. Non-athletes viewed more favourably by males than by females include Jay Z, Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Jay Z is also far more popular among younger Americans than he is among their elders (showing a gap of 39 points between those under 35 compared to those 55 and older). To a lesser extent, this is also the case for Eminem, Sean Diddy Combs, Heidi Klum, Natalie Portman, Britney Spears, and Jessica Simpson, among others.
• In reverse, Rachael Ray, Bill Gates, Paul McCartney, Kate Middleton, Roger Federer, and Barbara Walters are far more popular among those aged 55 and older than they are among younger Americans.