Update on Elon Musk and Twitter
Hello from SurveyMonkey! In this week’s newsletter, Brianna is back to share exclusive data on Elon Musk and Twitter, a topic that continues to make waves in the news especially with Musk today announcing he’s putting the $44 billion deal on hold. While he reaffirmed his commitment to the acquisition, this uncertainty reflects how unusual the takeover has been from the start. We polled Americans on how favorably they view Elon Musk—and billionaires in general—and whether they plan to leave or join Twitter with Musk in charge.
Read on to learn more! But first, as always, we wanted to shout out some of our research data in the news and on our blog:
Americans remain concerned about inflation, but differ on the cause: more than 9 in 10 adults are concerned about inflation according to the latest NYT|Momentive Consumer Confidence Index. However, More people blame record-high inflation on the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and corporations in general than last year’s stimulus money or the ongoing situation in Ukraine. Read some of the coverage in the New York Times.
High-income Millennials prioritize quality over affordability: recent Momentive polling shows that high-income Millennials (ages 26-41 with a household income of $100k+) place greater emphasis on the quality of products and services rather than price, with (82%) saying the quality of the product or service is important to them, 8 points ahead of affordability (74%). Read the full story.
Democrats likely to leave Twitter while Republicans look to join
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is likely to induce significant user churn, according to SurveyMonkey’s exclusive polling conducted May 2-9, 2022 among more than 7,000 people in the U.S.
Following the news that Musk is purchasing the company, 28% of current Twitter users say they are likely to leave the platform; however, a quarter (25%) of people who do not currently use Twitter say it’s likely they’ll start using the platform with Musk in charge. These comings and going are heavily partisan-driven:
42% of Democrats who currently use Twitter say they’re likely to leave the platform following the news of Elon Musk purchasing the company vs. just 11% of Republican users
39% of Republicans who don’t currently use Twitter say it’s likely they’ll start using the platform vs. just 14% of Democrats
Favorability of Elon Musk jumps among Twitter users
Despite this churn, Musk’s favorability rating among Twitter users is up 8 points from an April Momentive poll fielded just before Twitter accepted Musk’s bid, now with 53% of Twitter users rating him favorably and 30% unfavorably (with 16% who don’t know enough to say). Among the general public, Musk’s favorability rating ticks up slightly from a +16 favorability rating to a +18 favorability rating (45% favorable; 27% unfavorable; 26% don’t know).
Republicans Twitter users are more likely to have an increasingly favorable view of Musk: 83% say they have a favorable view of Musk, up 10 points from April (73%), but favorability ticks up just slightly among Democrats on Twitter (54% have a favorable view now vs. 51% in April).
In respondents’ own words, Musk is considered to be “brilliant,” “innovative,” “arrogant,” “visionary,” and a “genius,” but –above all else– he’s simply ”rich.”
Republicans consistently view Musk positively; describing him as “smart,” “genius,” “brilliant,” “rich,” and “intelligent”
But, Democrats hold a more negative view and describe Musk as “greedy,” “arrogant,” “rich,” “innovative,” and “narcissist”
Musk most favored tech billionaire
Musk’s favorability is higher now than three weeks ago, but it’s also high relative to his fellow billionaires. Musk’s +23 favorability beats out Bill Gates (-3), Jeff Bezos (-20), and Mark Zuckerburg (-37).
Favorability is largely dependent on political affiliation: Republicans are particularly keen on Musk (70% have a favorable view compared with just 25% of Democrats) while Democrats are more likely than Republicans to have a more favorable view of every other tech billionaire
Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to have a favorable view of Bill Gates (52% vs. 21%)
20% of Democrats say they have a favorable view of Mark Zuckerberg – almost double that of Republicans (12%)
24% of Democrats and 20% of Republicans have a favorable view of Jeff Bezos
Given the low favorability ratings of these tech billionaires, it’s no surprise that Americans are somewhat disillusioned with billionaires in general. About four in 10 (39%) Americans consider an economic system in which some people can accumulate billions of dollars while others have very little or no assets to be “immoral,” more than three times as many who consider that system to be moral (11%); still, almost half (48%) say it’s neither moral nor immoral.
These results are all roughly unchanged from a 2019 NYT|SurveyMonkey poll.
Democrats are most likely to say an economic system in which some people can accumulate billions of dollars while others have very little or no assets is “immoral” (58%) while just 20% of Republicans and 40% of independents.
Older adults are more likely to be indifferent: 53% of those 65+ say it’s neither moral nor immoral to have an economic system like this compared with 49% of those 34-65 and 40% of those 18-34.
Free speech is for the wealthy, but not for “people like you”
The overwhelming majority of adults (82%) say it’s easy for very wealthy people to express their opinions freely in today’s society; just 15% say it’s difficult. On the other hand, Americans are split on how easy, or difficult, it is for people like them to express their opinions freely in today’s society: just under half (49%) say it’s difficult while 48% say it’s easy.
The overwhelming majority of Democrats (91%) say it’s easy for wealthy people to express their opinions freely in today's society compared with 79% of Republicans and 77% of independents. But, when it comes to free speech among “people like you”, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say it’s easy for people like them to express their opinions freely (59% vs. 42%).
53% of those in households earning $100k+ say it’s easy for people like them to express their opinions freely vs. 50% of those earning between $50,000-$100k and 45% of those earning less than $50,000
53% of Blacks along with 53% of Asians say it’s easy for people like them to express their opinions freely compared with 48% of Hispanics, 47% of whites, and 40% of adults of another race
- Brianna Richardson
That’s all for this week! In case you missed it, check out our data about Elon Musk and Twitter from a few weeks ago.