Americans Turn On Each Other – New Poll Shows Gut-wrenching Changes

People in the United States no longer trust people in some of the most important jobs in society, like teaching, medicine, and especially places of institutional power.

In an Honesty and Ethics poll taken at the end of 2023, Gallup asked 800 people to rate how ethical a number of professions were and how much they trusted them generally.

“How you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields?” the poll asked. It got worse for all but one job compared to last year when it came to “very high” trust.

Based on the downward trends that started in 2019, the study found that people have lost the most trust in doctors, pharmacists, bankers, and journalists.

Up from 65% in 2019 to 56% in 2023, the number of doctors went down. The number of pharmacists went down from 64% to 55%.

In public, the ethics of bankers and reporters went down from 28% in 2019 to 19% in 2023.

The poll found that chiropractors, clergy, and business executives all lost eight points, which was tied for the second-highest drop.

The study was done at the same time and found that dentists (-2), stockbrokers (-2), insurance agents (-1) and car salespeople (-1) did some of the best.

But among the top gainers, dentists were the only ones who did not already have a terrible grade for “very high” trust.

People trusted dentists 59% of the time, but only 12% trusted insurance agents and stockbrokers. Only 8% of people who sold cars were near the bottom.

Senators and members of Congress were at the very bottom of the list when it came to high levels of trust. Only 8% of respondents said they trusted them, and only 6% said they had “very high” ethical standards.

The only job where people thought ethics were higher was that of labor union leaders, who saw a rise of 1% to 25%.

Gallup also found that five American jobs had record-low scores for ethics.

The information from 1976 showed that the scores for pharmacists, clergy, journalists, senators, and members of Congress were all the lowest they had been in almost 50 years.

In addition, America’s New Majority Project found that Democrats and Republicans had very different views on some of the most important jobs.

62% of Democrats thought college teachers were great, compared to only 22% of Republicans who thought the same. They also thought journalists were better than Republicans did—by more than four times, 32% to 7%, respectively.

But when it came to police officers, the numbers were different. 55% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats thought highly of them.