Over half of Gen Z believe Britain should be ruled by a dictator, study suggests
27 January 2025, 15:11 | Updated: 27 January 2025, 15:16
More than half of young people are in favour of turning the UK into a dictatorship, a new study has suggested.
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Some 52 per cent of Gen Z - people aged between 13 and 27 - said “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.
The poll, which was conducted for Channel 4's ‘Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust’ report, also found one in three young people want the army in charge of the country.
Meanwhile, 47 per cent agreed “the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution”.
The findings from polling company Craft, based on a sample of 3,000 adults of all ages, also revealed a “growing gender divide” amongst youngsters.
Some 45% of young men said “we have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men”, while a similar proportion agreed “when it comes to giving women equal rights, things have gone far enough”.
Responding to questions about media, 58% of Gen Z said they trusted social media posts from friends as much as established journalism while influencers including Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson had a similar trust of 42% of young men.
Alex Mahon, chief executive of Channel 4, said the data showed that Gen Z were simultaneously the country’s most authoritarian and liberal generation.
“They are media savvy, switched on and smart, but have been exposed to the full force of the polarising, confusing and sometimes wilfully misleading nature of social media since they were born,” she said.
“There is clear evidence of disengagement from democracy — fuelled by the online pied pipers who wilfully subvert truths — and a growing gender divide that should concern us all.”
She added that young people faced “growing uncertainty” on who to trust and were equally confident in traditional and alternative media sources.
She said: “Gen Z curate their own understanding of ‘the truth’. For many, this is exacerbating societal tensions and undermining the value of democracy.”
One 25-year-old male respondent from Cornwall said he felt “targeted” because he was a “regular straight white man who has had a cultural advantage in the past”.
He added: “It’s swinging back the other way, to a point where we potentially risk discriminating against us in favour of people in minority groups.”
A 27-year-old man from Norwich said he championed political correctness but that “wokeness” should not mean clamping down on free speech.
“Everyone should have the right to express themselves, as long as it’s not hate speech,” he said. “That’s why a lot of young men are confused. That’s the pipeline into the far right.”
An 18-year-old from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, said: “The people we watch, they propagate this idea that the West is a falling civilisation, and you need to start looking at other places.”
