Who do Americans Trust?

Is it a surprise that 4 out of 5 Americans don’t trust the government [“Majority of Americans distrust government“, April 2010].   Back in 2006, there was a little more trust, and further back, even more [several national surveys on “Values“].    This distrust of government seems to be getting “worse” lately, and maybe it is not difficult for us to understand why.    In a way, this is good news to those of us who know how little our elected representatives deserve our trust.  People are questioning what they are told – and that is what we need a lot more of.

But who do we trust?  Doctors and nurses rate the highest, people we know personally who we trust with our very lives.   I think it is a good sign that we do trust those we really must rely on.   An interesting tension arises when we cross our distrust in government with our trust in the medical profession, but that is a subject for another blog.

“Over Half of Americans Say They Tend not to Trust the Press” in March 2008.  And by November 2009, that distrust had risen to 77% [see the Values page again].   Anyone who knows how a story did not get reported fairly or accurately, whether it is about 9/11 or anything else, has acquired a healthy disregard for trusting what the main-stream media have been feeding us.  However, another “Poll finds Americans trust Fox News more than any other network“.  Gack!  But why?  Well, it turns out the republicans trust their favorite network much more than the democrats trust theirs, CNN.  OK, I can believe that.

But who do we trust the most, of all the people we come in contact with?   “Who do people trust? (It ain’t bloggers)”  reports on market research studies highlighted by the book Groundswell that asked how much people trust various sources of information (about products or services, in this case) .  It is abundantly clear that people trust their friends and acquaintances (including family) the most.

But don’t just believe me about any of this.  After all, I am just another random blogger you don’t know.  Ask yourself, who do you trust?  And who do you know who trusts you?