Americans Do Not Trust Established Institutions According to Gallup and Pew

Gallup published its 2023 results of a survey of honesty/ethics in the professions last year. The results speak volumes about which professions are trusted by most Americans. The most ethical profession is nurses with a 78% positive rating—high or very high in ethics. While this is a relatively strong rating, it has declined by 7% since the 2019 survey. This follows a declining trend in all professions. The ratings of all professions appear below in an Exhibit.

The professions that follow nurses with positive ratings include veterinarians (65%), engineers (60%), dentists (59%), medical doctors (56%), and pharmacists (55%). In each case, the ratings have declined since the 2019 survey. Both medical doctors and pharmacists have declined by 9% since that survey and so have police officers who went from 54% positive in 2019 to 45% in 2023. This could be due to the backlash against police around 2019-2021 and the advent of ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) movement that originated in 2022.

Declining Trend

I have previously blogged about the survey results in other years and noted that it is the helping professions that score the highest, although their positive ratings have declined since 2019. In fact, the positive rating of every group has declined.

It is worth noting that the rating for U.S. Senators went from 13% to 8% and for members of Congress from 12% to 6%. These two groups have the lowest ratings of all. This is not surprising to me because a significant majority of the country hold their representatives in Congress in low esteem.

The professions that make up the core categories that have been rated for many years are nurses, pharmacists, medical doctors, police officers, clergy, bankers, lawyers, business executives, members of Congress, advertising practitioners and car salespeople. These 11 have been rated since 1999, while others have been included periodically.

The average very high/high ethics rating of the core 11 professions has decreased from routinely 40% or higher in the early 2000s to closer to 35% during most of the 2010s. It rose slightly in 2020, to a seven-year high of 38%, reflecting enhanced public trust in healthcare workers and teachers during the pandemic. Thereafter, the average declined each year through 2023, when it reached 30%, and it held there in 2024. This mirrors the long-term decline in Americans' confidence in U.S. institutions. 

Pew Research Center Survey

According to the Pew Center Survey that shows Americans' distrust of institutions, “trust in some historically respected institutions has taken a hit in the post-pandemic years. Pew Research Center has been asking Americans about trust in institutions and reporting on their views for more than 25 years. Over the course of that period, some institutions have seen the faith entrusted in them wane, spike, and wane again. Others have managed to keep their hard-won credibility. Yet others tell a story of changing attitudes among subgroups of Americans.”

Trust in scientists has gone down, as has the share of Americans saying that science has a positive impact on society. Trust in education is on the decline. And recent years have found a record-low share of Americans with a positive view of the Supreme Court.

According to Pew, “in most cases, these changes in opinion have a partisan cast, with supporters of one major political party shifting their views even as the other keeps faith. In this way, the long-standing narrative of institutional mistrust is increasingly intertwined with the extreme political polarization that has defined the current era.”

Trust in the federal government

Americans’ trust in the federal government has been low for decades now. After spiking in the moments of national solidarity that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks, trust began to slide back down during President George W. Bush’s time in office and hasn’t recovered since then.

In a spring 2024 Pew Center survey, only 22% of U.S. adults said they trust the federal government to do the right thing just about always or most of the time. Perhaps surprisingly, this was up 6% from the year before.

Notably, mistrust of the federal government is widespread in both parties. One key distinction: Republicans’ levels of trust tend to differ depending on whether one of their own is sitting in the Oval Office. Trust among Democrats, who lean toward wanting the federal government to play a larger role in public life, is a bit more stable across administrations. 

Another key distinction is that partisans hold different views when it comes to the career employees who staff the federal government. In the 2022 survey, 65% of Democrats—but only 38% of Republicans—said they had confidence in career government workers. This is an interesting result because of President Trump’s efforts to trim down federal workers and cut funding to federal agencies.

The ‘Lost Art of Civility’

The Gallup and Pew results are only a snapshot in time. However, we should be concerned about the declining trend of ethics in society. The reduction reflected in institutional behavior mirrors that of all segments of society. This is not a surprise to me. It has become routine to have shootings in and around schools and other places. Indeed, it seems as though we have been inoculated against the disease that is violence in our streets. I have blogged about these issues many times before and pointed out that a lack of respect exists in institutions. Perhaps some deserve it, but certainly not all.

It goes beyond violence in the streets. It has infected the workplace as well. And now, we have to worry whether our flight from one city to another will be marred by disruptive behavior of a passenger. Years ago, we would have been shocked to see one passenger restraining another on an airplane, or even getting involved in fights. Flying from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ used to be a safe trip. Yes, we all dislike the long lines, TSA check, and boarding process. Still, we expected a smooth flight with no trouble from a disruptive passenger who acts without impulse control. No doubt, civility is a ‘lost art,’ as is reflected in the decline in honesty and ethics.

Posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on February 18, 2025. You can sign up for his newsletter and learn more about his activities at: https://www.stevenmintzethics.com/.