In a refreshing change to the view that money and power are the greatest influences on people and what they admire most in individuals, the latest YouGov poll to determine who are the most admired men and women in the world at present, seems to have sided with humanitarians. True, both Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie are also affluent, but they are equally well admired by many for their good works quite apart from their original 'day jobs'.
The poll placed Gates as the most admired man and Jolie as his counterpart on the female side. As such they were viewed more highly than either Barack Obama or the Queen of England, Elizabeth II.
Neither can the size of the poll imply that the results should be held up for ridicule, as YouGov incorporated the views of some 25,000 people, spread across 23 countries, to ensure that no particular country's leading figures would sway the vote unfairly in any particular direction.
Gates is commonly recognised as the man who came to prominence as the co-founder of the largest software corporation the world has known; Jolie is the "better half" of the celebrity American couple and has also often acted alongside her husband Brad Pitt in films.
Since he retired from Microsoft's chairmanship role, Gates has dedicated himself to assisting with the education needs of people across the globe and seeking a solution to world poverty, much of which is through the foundation he runs with his wife, Melinda.
He has selflessly ploughed billions of his own fortune into the furthering of those projects.
Jolie has also not been slow to invest her efforts on the humanitarian side, using her well-known face and name to good effect in promoting good causes and works, besides becoming a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Two of the world's major leaders placed second and third on the men's side, as Obama's appeal across many countries, slightly outweighed the predominantly domestic support from his own country for China's President Xi Jinping.
The women's side of the poll results had an interesting figure in second place, as the incredibly brave Malala Yousafzai's fight for education rights in her own country of Pakistan, clearly struck a note with the voters.
She became the youngest person in history to win the Nobel Peace Prize and indeed any such prize, when she took that title in 2014. Hillary Clinton placed third, while Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was fourth.
Taking the votes purely from Britain, the Queen would have been top on the female side with Stephen Hawking placed first among the men.
YouGov is a market research firm based in the UK, which was founded in 2000.
