Over half of men in Harvard survey claim to recognize fictional AI executives
OfirPress · x · 2026-10-15
A Harvard Shorenstein Center survey of 5,400+ Americans, covered by WIRED, found 73% of male respondents said they knew who Sam Altman is, and 53% claimed to recognize Mira Murati, Susan Milner, and Craig Dalton — the latter two being entirely fabricated names. Only 38-40% of women claimed the same.
Key findings:
- Men are consistently more optimistic and confident about AI, sometimes tipping into overconfidence. Men use AI more and answer factual questions correctly more often, but men and women err at similar rates — the gap comes from women saying "not sure" more often (about 3.3 more questions on average).
- The accompanying chart (Figure A8) shows near-universal recognition of Musk/Zuckerberg/Bezos (94-98%), while men's claimed recognition of real AI figures like Jensen Huang, Fei-Fei Li, and Murati is no higher than their claims about fake names.
The report examines what this gendered confidence gap means in practice.
Related event: Harvard Survey: Over Half of Men Claim to Know Fictional AI Executives(3 posts)→
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