Honesty And Ethics In The Professions (1976 Thru 2025)

 

The chart above is from the Gallup Poll.

Poll Shows Belief In The Honesty/Ethics Of U.S. Professions

The chart above is from a Gallup Poll -- done between December 2nd and 18th of a nationwide sample of 1,003 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
 

Respect For Ethics Of Professionals Is Falling

The charts above are from the Gallup Poll - done between December 1st and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,013 adults, with a 4 point margin of error. 

Professions Considered To Be Honest And Ethical

 

The charts above are from a Gallup Poll -- done between November 9th and December 2nd of a nationwide sample of 1,020 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Perception Of Honesty And Ethics In Professions

 

The chart above is from the Gallup Poll -- done between December 1st and 16th of a nationwide sample of 811 adults, and has a 4 point margin of error.

Professions - Paid Too Much Or Too Little?

The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 4th and 7th of a nationwide sample of 1,500 adults, with a 3.1 point margin of error. 

Medical Workers And Teachers Viewed As Being Most Ethical

 The chart above is from the Gallup Poll. They surveyed 1,018 adults between December 1st and 17th, and the survey had a 4 point margin of error. The respondents were asked what professions had the most ethical workers. Scoring the highest were nurses, doctors, teachers, and pharmacists. Police officers were the only other group to get a majority (a very slim majority). All other groups were seen as unethical by a majority -- including the clergy. As usual, members of Congress finished dead last.

Nurses Rated Highest On Honesty/Ethics - Congress Lowest

The Gallup Poll has released its annual survey on public perception of the honesty and ethical standards of various profession. Once again, the nursing profession was rated the highest, with 84% of the public rating them very honest and ethical.

Members of Congress tied car salespeople as being viewed as the least honest and ethical. Both got only 8%. Car salespeople are rated a bit higher though, since 44% rated them as very low in honesty and ethics, while 58% said the same about Congress.

Unsuprisingly (at least to me), is the fact that the percentage believing members of the clergy were honest and ethical continues to drop. Only 37% believe that -- the lowest percentage since Gallup began this polling.

This Gallup Poll was done between December 3rd and 12th of a national sample of 1,025 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Nursing Is The Most Respected Profession In The U.S.

The Gallup Poll has done its annual poll on which are the most and least respected professions in the United States. They did their survey between December 4th and 11th of a random national sample of 1,049 adults, and it has a margin of error of 4 points.

They asked the poll respondents to rate each profession on honesty and ethical standards. Once again, nurses were ranked the highest (82%) -- 11 points higher than the second place (military officers) (71%).

Members of Congress were rated as having the lowest honesty and ethical standards (60%) -- two points lower than second lowest (lobbyists) (58%)

Perhaps surprising to some is the fact that the clergy slipped further down on the honesty and ethical standards scale. The clergy has been heading downward for the past couple of decades -- from 64% in 2001 to 42% in 2017 (a drop of 22 points).

Rating Of Professions By The American Public

The chart above is from the Gallup Poll. It was done between December 7th and 11th of a random national sample of 1,028 adults, and has a margin of error of 4 points. They asked their respondents to rate different professions as to their opinion of them -- either high/very high or low/very low.

Nurses topped the high/very high category with a rating of 84%. The only other professions to receive a high/very high rating from at least half of the public were pharmacists, medical doctors, engineers, dentists, and police officers. Personally, I disagree with rating police officers that highly, because of the "blue wall" (police acting to protect their own even when they have done wrong). That doesn't seem to me to be very honest or ethical.

As usual, members of Congress finished dead last, with only 8% rating them high/very high (worse even than car salesmen). Members of the clergy also did poorly, finishing only at a high/very high rating by 44% (down from 64% just 15 years ago). It seems that fundamentalist preachers are giving all clergy a bad reputation with their message of hate.