Party affiliation tied to Americans’ trust of various professions

How individuals identify politically may impact how trusting they are of the world around them.

On average, Republicans and Democrats differ by at least 10 percentage points in their rankings of the honesty and ethics of 22 different professions, according to a recent Gallup poll.



When asked to rank the ethical standards of professionals from different fields, the percentages of those responding “high” or “very high”, divided by party affiliation, are as follows:

Graphic courtesy of Gallup.

Local government fared better than state and congressional bodies, with 28 percent of Republicans, 21 percent of Independents and 23 percent of Democrats ranking local officials as trustworthy. However, 16 percent of Republicans, 11 from Independents and 17 from Democrats viewed state officials as trustworthy. Congress did worse, with 5 percent of Republicans, 9 percent of Independents and 8 percent of Democrats saying the governing body deals ethically and honestly.

Republican respondents gave higher rankings for police, clergy and military officers than did Democrat respondents (by 24, 23 and 14 percentage points, respectively). Democrat respondents marked TV and newspaper reporters as well as judges higher than did Republican respondents (by 10, 9 and 10 points respectively), though all respondents universally ranked certain professions highly and lowly. (Military officers, pharmacists and medical doctors scored universally highly across parties. Advertisers and lobbyists scored universally lowly.)


Also of note, younger Americans, those 18-35, tended to be more trusting than those 55 and up. Younger Americans ranked nearly all professions slightly higher than did their older counterparts.

For more information, read the full report here.

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