On Monday, market research firm YouGov published the results of a survey on British prejudices.

Split into 48 different ethnic, age and gender groups, the poll asked members of the general public to score various social groups on specific positive and negative criteria.

At the bottom of the list came white British men in their twenties.

Now, as a white British man in my twenties, I’m obviously not pleased about this. Whilst I realise that many individuals in my social group may indeed be the tearaways and undesirables that apparently dominate public perception, it seems unfair to tar us all with the same brush.

To find out whether I'm alone in taking umbrage with the 'lad' label, I took to the streets of London to ask as many young white men as I could find about their experience of pulling the anti-social short straw.

Jonathan Wells takes to the streets to find out how young white men react to being hated Credit: Getty

When I found Robert, 23, he was sitting on a bench in a train station. Rather than cat-calling nearby girls or starting a fight with the station attendant, he was simply looking at his phone. I asked him what he thought of YouGov’s findings.

“I think it’s strange,” says Robert. “I don’t think you can put people into categories like that anymore. Everyone’s becoming more accepting and the whole country is becoming more diverse. Who’s to say that a white man in his twenties wouldn’t act like an Asian man in his thirties? I have friends of different races who are more similar to me than other white men I know.”

"‘Lad culture’ and ‘banter’ have characterised our social group, even though not all of us are like that"

“But maybe that’s the problem,” he continues. “Maybe because everyone’s becoming more accepting, and there are less prejudices around race now – and more opportunities – maybe people of other ethnicities feel like we’ve been wrongly privileged for too long and are trying to take us down a peg or two."

Could lads' mags and 'banter' culture be to blame for this social prejudice?

At Imperial College, friends Patrick and Ryan disagreed over the possible cause of the negative perception. Although just 19, the students were displeased that they were about to enter the “most hated decade of [their] lives.”

“I think it’s a labelling issue,” says Patrick. “If you asked anyone to close their eyes and imagine a young, white 20-year old, they’d probably immediately think up a guy with, like, no hair and a tracksuit smashing up a car or something. I think ‘lad culture’ and ‘banter’ have characterised our social group, even though not all of us are like that

"It’s the jumper-round-your-shoulders, chino-wearing Oxbridge boys who make people hate young men"

“And then all the people who have no dealings with real 20-year olds, and are basing their opinions on the stereotypes you see on the news and Crimewatch, put the rest of us down for no reason. Blame the ‘banter’ brigade.”

“No, I think you’re wrong,” offers Ryan – a Biology undergraduate. “I think it’s the jumper-round-your-shoulders, chino-wearing Oxbridge boys who make people hate young men.

“Just think about it. They’re the ones who grow up to be the bankers and the politicians ruining the country, and its during these early years that they make their groups of seedy friends who they stick with for the rest of their lives. It’s the posh people who think the world should lay down for them that give young white men a bad name – like the people who go to Eton and places like that.

"But I agree that it's far too broad a category. I'd say I 'deride' the haughty posh boys - but that doesn’t mean I hate myself.”

19-year old Ryan blames bankers and posh boys for giving young white men a bad reputation Credit: Alamy

Many of the men I spoke to similarly pointed out problems with the structure of the survey, attacking its premise rather than taking issue with the results themselves.

YouGov asked the public to score the various social groups in categories such as likelihood of honesty, intelligence, work ethics, politeness, eagerness to help others, capacity for violence, frequency of sexual encounters and drug and alcohol use. Jonathan, a 27-year-old mortgage advisor at a popular high street bank, believes that asking for responses in this way was only ever going to lead to generalisations.

“I think you’re probably right that some of us are scumbags,” he laughs. “But I don’t consider myself or any of my other friends who fit into the whole 'white men in their twenties' category to be like that. It seems weird though, how many people must be in that group – white men in their twenties? Hundreds of thousands, surely?

“It just doesn’t seem fair to begin with," he continues. "Whoever put this survey together is not only asking you to judge, but also to generalise. I don’t believe people like me are statistically more likely to commit crimes, or get drunk or sleep around or whatever they asked, than any other particular ethnicity or similar age group.

"20-year-old white men shouldn’t be used as scapegoats like this, we haven’t done anything wrong.”

Though rated highly for intelligence, young white men still came bottom of the survey Credit: Alamy

However, some individuals who fall into the young white male social group do accept responsibility for the unfavourable results. Matt is a post-graduate student of English Literature. Whilst he believes the structure of the survey to be flawed, he agrees that perhaps young white men are guiltier than we care to admit.

“I have to say,” begins the 22-year old, “that when it comes to making sweeping value judgements about whole demographics, I'm not sure criteria such as number of sexual encounters and drinking alcohol are useful – as bound up with complex cultural and social issues as they are.

"20-year-old white men shouldn’t be used as scapegoats like this, we haven’t done anything wrong"

“But, that said, I'm not surprised by the findings – young white men are a very privileged group, and often as a demographic I feel we take that for granted and fail to act with the responsibility that such privilege should come hand-in-hand with.”

Many young men believe that the 'White men in their twenties' demographic is too broad to judge Credit: Alamy

While the men I spoke to offered different reactions to the news that they are part of a reviled demographic, what did remain constant, however, was displeasure at the generalisation associated with the term 'young white men'. They all agreed that lumping ASBO delinquents in with entitled Etonians and everyone in-between did no one any favours.

“You could get 48 categories out of white men in their twenties alone,” concluded Patrick.