THE GEN Z IMPERATIVE: LISTEN TO FEELINGS AND GIVE GEN Z A VOICE

NEW YORK, New York –  As Congress reconvened on Antisemitism at Post-Secondary Institutions  and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) hosts their “Never Again is Now” summit next week to confront the troubling rise of antisemitism overall and specifically on college campuses, including violent protests, and heart wrenching testimony yesterday, The Heart Monitors – a strategy and insights consultancy – believes it’s imperative to acknowledge the “why,” the feelings behind the facts and the realities truly faced by Generation Z (Gen Z). The Heart Monitors found that 70% of Gen Z feels apart from other generations and not heard.

The Heart Monitors was born in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Israel/Hamas attacks, which revealed the strong feelings, perspectives and larger social debate of the Gen Z generation. Co-founded by marketing and brand strategy industry pioneers Jon Bond and Robin Lemberg –  both parents to Gen Z aged children  – The Heart Monitors was created to better listen, understand and connect with the powerful feelings of Gen Z in the Hamas/Israeli conflict from all perspectives: Gen Z overall, Gen Z Muslims, Gen Z Jews, and what they term the Middle. Bond and Lemberg believe that exposing, and quantifying different facts and the  feelings behind them are the new currency to change minds and behaviors.

“Feelings are the new currency in an ‘Emotion economy’. Facts alone cannot combat feelings,” said Robin Lemberg, co-founder, The Heart Monitors. “In a world of truth decay and misinformation,  we are in the Emotion Economy where feelings are the new contemporary currency that drives identification, adherence to a message, powerful narratives and ultimately behavior change. There are twenty core emotions and thousands of feelings. Feelings shift hearts to change behaviors and incite action — facts do not.”

Since January 1, 2024, The Heart Monitors has fielded over 300 short quantitative surveys supplemented by qualitative research conducted through a nationally representative panel of U.S. teens/adults. Research was conducted among Gen Z (ages 16-26), with results compared to the general population 16-plus (U.S., national), and then among separate samples of relevant sub-segments of Gen Z (self-identified Jews, Muslims and other, along with LGBTQ+ identifying Gen Zers when relevant). The key to the methodology is quick and timely reads on the most meaningful headlines, and related  pop culture events as they appear.???This quick take on the “pulse” of GenZ is coupled with a bold approach: asking the questions that no one asks, so it is possible to derive the insights no one else is seeing, even when the answers might be hard to hear. And when confronted with a meaningful statistic, The Heart Monitors drills down further, to get to the raw feelings behind the facts and then uses a battery of feelings behind them.

From these research pulses, The Heart Monitors has revealed statistics and insights which indicate a disconnect between the perceptions of Gen Z and the general population around  the realities of antisemitism, perceptions of antisemitism, Hamas vs the IDF as well as  the actions of Israel and the beliefs of American Jews , the feelings of Gen Z Jews and Gen Z Muslims. The Heart Monitors has examined the events at Harvard as a microcosm of college campuses across the country,  quantified what is free speech or hate speech, their reactions to slogans, messaging and creative ideas circulating on social media and compared them to the General Population.

Just yesterday, The Heart Monitors found that only 50% of Gen Z identified the cartoons released by Harvard Professors as Antisemitic. Additionally, the majority of Gen Z does not view the Antisemitic cartoons as a form of hate speech (50%). Instead, as we know they argue for their right to free speech, even in educational settings. Moreover, the story of Dr. Claudine Gay’s resignation was viewed as an influence of “rich Jewish donors” (60% agreement)  and less  her failure to address antisemitism and accusations of plagiarism, and that 46% of Gen Z believes that Jews should be considered a minority group with all others in the context of DEI, yet accusations of quotas at Harvard, Penn and other institutions of higher education speaks to the complexities at play.

Earlier Gen Z insights from The Heart Monitors from January 2024 through February 2024 show that only 32% of Gen Z believe the Holocaust is relevant today, 25% of Gen Z believe that both Hamas and IDF are terrorist organizations, and 50% of Gen Z agree the slogan “Free Palestine” inspires them to take action or support the cause. Gen Z feelings range from numb/indifferent, curious and confused, shocked, and suspicious, depending on the topic and inspired, sympathetic, sad, joyful, happy to creative messages and ads. “Never Again is Now” is a Jewish call to action, but alienating to others as the Holocaust is seen as history in the face of modern day genocide.

“To Gen Z, Anti-Semitism is a gray area at best. Viewing this through a brand marketing lens, Israel is losing the propaganda war with Gen Z.,” said Jon Bond, co-founder, The Heart Monitors. “‘Free Palestine’ is arguably the best marketing campaign of the 21st century. It was a simple, powerful, unified message from a well orchestrated playbook. Gen Z responded, and Israel lost the hearts of Gen Z. In less than 5 months, the pro-Palestinian effort has flipped the script so that Israel is no longer ‘the underdog’ — they have become David, and Israel is now big, bad Goliath. What are the long term implications of this? We need to truly listen to Gen Z to understand more.”

To donate  your voice to your favorite non-profit and provide your perspective around this conflict to incite change please visit theheartmonitors.com. The Heart Monitors will be launching online forums for discussion and healthy debate.



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The Heart Monitors is a new type of strategy consultancy that exposes the feelings behind the facts™ that offer deep insights and drive behavior change. Made up of passionate leaders from the worlds of marketing, finance, non-profits, research and social science, The Heart Monitors bring a proprietary research tech stack, custom communities, daring questions, quick and timely reads and with products and services such as the “F Factor” and the “Gen Z Heart Tracker.” We empower non-profits, brands and their partners with powerful audience insights around messages, campaigns, topical and polarizing issues in order to craft a story that resonates, drives behavior and influences change. For more information, visit theheartmonitors.com.

Media Contacts: 

The Heart Monitors
Haley Steinhauser
haley@theheartmonitors.com
Ph: 562-991-3170

RocketshipPR
Warren Cohn
Warren@rocketshipPR.com
Ph: 917-7967463