America’s most and least trusted professions

Statista raises the question of mistrust in everyday life, whether it is questioning a doctor’s honesty or ethics regarding a diagnosis or blaming a salesperson for eroneous information.

The professions that Americans regard as the most honest and ethical today, may come as no surprise.

Pollster Gallup released the results of their examination showing that nurses are the most trusted occupation in the country. They first again for the 17th year in a row for honesty and ethical standards, with 84 percent of respondents rating them very high or high.

Generally speaking, the medical care profession scored high on honesty with doctors and pharmacists among the top-three with 67 and 66 percent respectively.

In the selection of the professions examined by Gallup, military officers come second with 71 percent saying they have high honesty standards while grade school teachers come third with 66 percent placing a high level of trust in them.

Police officers are also considered honest by a majority of Americans, despite the bad publicity that law enforcement has attracted over a series of police shootings involving criminal African Americans.

Sadly, members of Congress are dead last on the scores, with 58 percent of the US public considering them dishonest. Even car salespeople do better than politicians in the ranking with only 44 percent of Americans considering them unethical or dishonest.

Judges and clergy scored in the middle, with about four out of every ten Americans placing a high level of trust in these occupations.

Not surprisingly, with the many fake news stories being exposed, newspaper and TV reporters ranked poorly in the honesty stakes, but lawyers and business executives are trusted even less.

Lobbyists were considered the worst, however, with only 8 percent of Gallup’s respondents giving them a high or very high honesty and ethical standards.

Trust seems to be in particularly short supply in Britain for the same professions too, as a new survey by Ipsos shows. The British public has little faith in journalists or politicians to tell the truth.

In an October poll, only 26 percent of respondents said they trusted journalists, while 19 percent would put their faith in politicians.

At the other end of the scale, in the UK too, nurses are trusted by almost everyone – 96 percent said they find them to be trustworthy. Doctors and teachers made up the top three, with 92 and 89 percent respectively.

Notably in the UK, advertising executives are held in even lower regard than politicians, coming in at the bottom of the ranking with a low 16 percent.