Most Trusted Profession

Public Sector

Every year I'm fascinated to see just how stable public trust is in the occupations in the public's eye. Yet to see the media listen to the commentators on radio and television, you'd think that trust in institutions is declining sharply. To listen to them, you'd think that nobody trusts anybody anymore. They are wrong: there has been no general decline in trust over the past two decades, as shown over nearly a quarter of a century, by our surveys, initially done in 1983 for the Sunday Times and this year sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians.

 

Every year I'm fascinated to see just how stable public trust is in the occupations in the public's eye. Yet to see the media listen to the commentators on radio and television, you'd think that trust in institutions is declining sharply. To listen to them, you'd think that nobody trusts anybody anymore. They are wrong: there has been no general decline in trust over the past two decades, as shown over nearly a quarter of a century, by our surveys, initially done in 1983 for the Sunday Times and this year sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians.

This year there has been but a marginal decline in the public's trust of all the 16 listed professions (53% average this year down from 56% last year), except for judges, who have increased slightly, and government ministers, remaining at the same very low level. (Doctors Still Top The Poll As Most Trusted Profession)

Nine in ten people still say they trust Doctors to tell the truth. Teachers, professors, judges and clergymen/priests are considered trustworthy by a majority of the public. Just over half say they trust the ordinary man/woman in the street to tell the truth (52%), and just under half say they trust pollsters (45%) and civil servants (44%). Bottom of the ranking are journalists and politicians, as shown in the graph

It is remarkable how stable trust has been over the years.

Q ... would you tell me whether you generally trust them to tell the truth or not?

KEY: Doc: Doctors; Tea: Teachers; Prf: Professors; Jud: Judges; Cle: Clergy / priests; Sci: Scientists; TV: Television news readers; Plc: The Police; Ord: The ordinary man / woman in the street; Pls: Pollsters; Civ: Civil Servants; TU: Trade Union Officials; Bus: Business Leaders; Gov: Government Ministers; Jou: Journalists; Plt: Politicians generally.

  Doc Tea Prf Jud Cle Sci TV Plc Ord Pls Civ TU Bus Gov Jou Plt
160 % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
Tell the truth
1983 82 79 n/a 77 85 n/a 63 61 57 n/a 25 18 25 16 19 18
1993 84 84 70 68 80 n/a 72 63 64 52 37 32 32 11 10 14
1997 86 83 70 72 71 63 74 61 56 55 36 27 29 12 15 15
1999 91 89 79 77 80 63 74 61 60 49 47 39 28 23 15 23
2000 87 85 76 77 78 63 73 60 52 46 47 38 28 21 15 20
2001 89 86 78 78 78 65 75 63 52 46 43 39 27 20 18 17
2002 91 85 77 77 80 64 71 59 54 47 45 37 25 20 13 19
2003 91 87 74 72 71 65 66 64 53 46 46 33 28 20 18 18
2004 92 89 80 75 75 69 70 63 55 49 51 39 30 23 20 22
2005 91 88 77 76 73 70 63 58 56 50 44 37 24 20 16 20
2006 92 88 80 75 75 72 66 61 56 51 48 41 31 22 19 20
2007 90 86 78 78 73 65 61 59 52 45 44 38 26 22 18 18

Base: c. 2,000

Source: Ipsos / Royal College of Physicians

More men are trusting than women. Doctors are considered trustworthy by more men than women (92% vs. 88%). Teachers and judges also, trusted by 5% more than women. More men say they trust scientists, the ordinary man/woman in the street, pollsters and journalists. In the case of scientists, a higher proportion of women are undecided but no more likely to actively say they distrust them.

Age also has an important impact on levels of trust in most professions. Young people are more likely to trust the following: professors, judges, scientists, police, pollsters, civil servants, trade union officials, and business leaders than older people. In contrast, older people are more likely to be trusting of the ordinary man/woman in the street (perhaps reflecting the warnings about talking to strangers, more in recent years, and for some reason, priests/clergymen.

People in different social classes differ in their trust of some professions. More people categorised as lower middle class, the C1s, regard television newsreaders not trustworthy (34%) than do ABs (25%). Ethnicity is also important in terms of the levels of trust given in most professions. White people are more likely to place trust in the listed professions, compared to ethnic minority communities. The only occupation which people belonging to ethnic minorities are more likely to trust is journalists (29% of BMEs vs. 17% of white respondents).

Those who are working tend to have more trust in professions than do those who are not. For example, those working full-time are more likely to trust: teachers, television news readers, professors, scientists and pollsters. Respondents not working are more likely to trust government ministers.

Voting intention also plays a role to some extent in terms of trust in professions -- Labour party supporters are more likely to have higher levels of trust in comparison to the national average. Labour party supporters are more likely to trust: doctors, clergymen/priests, police, civil servants and trade union officials compared to supporters of other political parties.

Funny, I've never been asked by the CIPR to measure the public's trust of people working in public relations.

Sir Robert Worcester is the Chairman of MORI

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