Gen Z doesn't trust Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos — but Oprah and Bill Gates garnered more confidence
- Mark Zuckerberg may have overhauled his image but he's still not winning over Gen Z adults.
- Topping the list of trustworthiness: Oprah Winfrey, a Business Insider survey found.
Gen Z isn't big on Facebook, and they feel the same about the man who made it.
In a July Business Insider survey done in collaboration with YouGov, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranked lowest in trustworthiness among the demographic when compared with a list of fellow business icons.
Only 23% of Gen Z respondents found him trustworthy, compared with 60% who found him somewhat or very untrustworthy.
Doing only slightly better: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who 53% of Gen Z respondents said was untrustworthy, versus 22% who said he was trustworthy.
Zuckerberg's low ranking follows his move away from his early-Facebook ruthless tech founder persona, with him now projecting the image of a doting father with a more measured approach to security after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Meanwhile, the business exec who won over the greatest proportion of Gen Z: media and entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey, who was ranked trustworthy by 46% of Gen Z respondents. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates got a 41%, the second-highest percentage for trustworthiness.
Gen Z is defined as those born between 1997 and 2012; BI only surveyed those above the age of 18. BI and YouGov's survey included more than 1,800 Americans spanning five generations. More than 600 respondents were members of Gen Z.
One icon who proved polarizing: Warren Buffett, with only 27% calling him trustworthy — and the same amount deeming him untrustworthy. (Although 45% said they weren't sure either way on the Oracle of Omaha.)
And Gen Z reserved their strongest opinions about the business icons for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with only 16% of those surveyed unsure what they thought of him. Half of those surveyed said Musk was somewhat or very untrustworthy; 34% said he was trustworthy.
Musk has courted controversy this year for a slew of changes he's made since purchasing Twitter, which he has since renamed X. He laid off more than 80% of the company's workforce since taking charge and most recently got in trouble for supporting antisemitic remarks on X and telling advertisers who subsequently pulled their business to "go f*ck yourself."
Possibly-less-well-known business leaders — such as Disney CEO Bob Iger, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Apple CEO Tim Cook — had the largest percentage of young adults saying they weren't sure about their trustworthiness.