Americans trust people in some professions but not all. Who don’t they trust? Gallup asked Americans to rate honesty and ethics in 22 professions.
82 percent of those polled find nurses’ ethics “very high,” landing them at the top of the “trust” list for the 16th year in a row. Conversely, 60 percent of Americans rate members of Congress as having low or very low ethics. Even lobbyists beat out our elected senators and representatives, with 58 percent of those polled giving them low or very low trust levels.
The poll rated six professions as “high” or “very high” for honesty and ethical standards. In addition to nurses, military officers, grade school teachers, medical doctors, police officers and pharmacists rate high on the list. Gallup, however, says “the honesty rating of pharmacists dropped five points since last year and is at its lowest point since 1994, possibly reflecting the current nationwide opioid crisis.”
Gallup also expressed surprise that high or very high trust in clergy members fell to 42 percent, the lowest rating for that group since it began the survey in 1977.
The poll found an unsurprising schism in the way Republicans and Democrats see things and trust people. Perhaps it won’t shock you that Democrats rate journalists more honest than do Republicans. Only 12 percent of Republicans give TV and print reporters high and very high ratings for honesty and ethics, while over 40 percent of Democrats view them this way. Gallup says, “This partisan divide reinforces recent Gallup findings that Democrats’ trust in the media is much higher than that of Republicans.”
Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to rate police officers, military officers, clergy, pharmacists and judges “very high” or “high” on honesty and ethics. Gallup says that “hasn’t changed much in recent years.”
Statista, a group that gathers data, put together an easy-to-read chart that lays out plainly where Americans of all political stripes place their trust, or don’t.
You will find more statistics at Statista
