Has the long-term decline in trust finally bottomed out?

It has been a regular finding of both MORI and YouGov research that the public’s trust in members of different professions has been steadily declining for many years. However, the latest survey from YouGov suggests this decline has stopped, with several professions – including politicians – seeing a recent recovery in their standings.

In 2003 on average 49% of people said they trusted different professions on average to tell the truth a great deal or a fair amount. This fell to 42% in 2006 and 37% in 2007 but was 39% this August. The two point rise is not statistically significant but does end the run of statistically significant declines.

Between 2007 and 2010 trust in NHS hospital managers increased by 12 percentage points, though still only reaching 29%, as did trust in leading Conservative politicians (also reaching 29%) with people who run large companies getting an 11 point gain to take them to 28%. Leading Labour politicians increased by 9 to 23% and leading Liberal Democrats by 8 to 27% with “my local MP” increasing by 7 to 36%. The biggest decline was among judges – down by 7 points to 63%.

Overall family doctors are most trusted (85%, down 4), followed by school teachers (76%, down 1), people who run national charities (67%, up 3) and local police beat officers (66%, no change).

Boy reading newspaperLeast trusted are journalists on red-top tabloids (10%, up 3), estate agents (14%, up 4) and senior officials in the EU (16%, up 2).

Though other newspaper journalists do better, none are trusted by more than 50%, reinforcing my often expressed view that coping with the large volume of free news available is not simply a matter of technical issues or business models for newspapers – they also need to win people’s trust.

If people don’t trust you, you are not exactly making it easy to persuade people to give you money, especially the generations of media consumers now growing up who are not starting with a newspaper reading habit.

The margin of error on the poll figures is +/-3%, but the changes between the different polls are only statistically significant if greater than c.5%. The wording of question was “How much do you trust the following to tell the truth?”. Source data here; 2008 has been excluded as some professions were omitted in that year.

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This entry was posted in News and Polls.
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6 Comments

  • But what was happening in 2007 that local MPs were so distrusted then?

  • @ Liberalone
    It may not be a case of something happening in 2007, it could be a blip due to the recent election. A lot of the old guard left Parliament, plus each local MP would have won some form of majority and it’s to soon for that majority to form any other opinion (after all, they just voted for their local MP).

    @Mark
    Curious why you took the 2007 figure, are you not a little concerned that from the 2008 figures the LD Politicians are showing a double dip recession?

  • @Mark
    Fair point. I can’t say I share your optimism though, when you look at the figures as a whole there is still a decline in trust of those deemed to have power.
    The only 2 groups to show any progress since 2003 are Conservative Politicians and business leaders (large companies). As time goes by the figures for the former will drop (as they always do when a party is in Government – expect further falls in the LD % as well), for the latter group – who knows, it will probably depend on how long the current financial disaster runs for.

  • The decline in trust in politicians I believe stems from the fact that many are seen to be out of touch with the reality of life outside politics. Look at how many people go from a degree in politics into working for political parties to being a MP without really experiencing the challenges of normal working life faced by much of the electorate.

    When you add into the equation the recent scandals regarding expenses and the fact that for most people seeking to become a politician they need substantial private means it is not surprising that many voters lack trust in their representatives.

    People are able to understand a lot more than they are given credit for and a greater degree of openness and honesty about the problems faced and not making false promises in order to win elections would go a long way towards establishing trust in the political process.

    In fact while I welcome many of the ideas that have come out of the Browne report on University funding the dishonesty/lack of foresight before the election on the issue has dented my trust in the political leadership of the Liberal Democrats. I know government by coalition is a compromise yet principles and commitments made to the electorate should be honored as far as possible when in power if you want the electorate to trust you.

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