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One in four Britons say they don’t like themselves

Getty Images/iStockphoto
Getty Images/iStockphoto

One in four Britons says they do not like the person they are according to a new survey by YouGov.

The study of 3,450 adults asked Brits whether they liked themselves and although 73 per cent said yes, 25 per cent said they did not.

The main factors influencing self-worth being employment and relationship status.

A total of 43 per cent of respondents who are not employed and not studying said they did not like themselves, while only 23 per cent did not among those with jobs.

And 31 per cent of people who were not in relationships said they did not like themselves, compared with 20 per cent of those in relationships.

YouGov said of the findings: “Younger people are much more likely than older people to say they aren’t happy with who they are, with three in 10 (31 per cent) 16-24 year-olds saying they don’t like themselves most of the time, compared to just one in ten (10 per cent) of those aged 55-plus.”

Other questions in the survey focused on specific personality traits, finding that 57 per cent of British people identify as being "shy".

Sixty per cent of respondents described themselves as “reserved” compared to only a third of people believing they are “outgoing”.

Men were more likely to say they were a reserved person (63 per cent) compared with 56 per cent of women.

Older people were more likely to describe themselves as extroverted than younger people with 40 per cent of over 55s saying they were outgoing compared to 20 per cent of 16-24 year olds.

The younger generation were more likely to describe themselves as shy (66 per cent).

The survey also asked whether people thought they had a “strong” or a “soft” character.

While 30 per cent put themselves in the latter category, 62 per cent called their characters strong, including 14 per cent who said theirs was “very strong”.

Among those with soft characters, 88 per cent called themselves shy, compared with only 34 per cent of those with very strong characters.