Integrity Talking Points

12 December 2012

The outcome of the United States elections doesn’t seem to have done much for the reputation of politicians in the public eye.  Gallup has released its annual survey results on the confidence level in the ethics of a range of professional groups which only rates car salesmen less favourably.  An equivalent New Zealand poll is the UMR occupational respect poll, published each year as part of the Mood of the Nation report.  That will next be published in January 2013.

Comparing the latest US results with those in the January 2012 UMR survey shows a similar pecking order with nurses, doctors, police and teachers appearing to engender more public respect for their ethics than other groups. However many of the occupational groupings in the two surveys cannot be directly compared. For example UMR includes dairy farmers and public servants, while Gallup measures clergy and car salesmen.

New Zealanders “rate” their politicians better than in the US – and in fact seem to take a less critical view of most occupations.  They rated investment bankers as only marginally better than real estate agents as the least respected.

The September 2012 Which survey on trusted professions in Britain has more variation. Possibly as a consequence of public awareness of the Leveson inquiry, trust in the Police was at only 7% – the same as for journalists. British bankers, also, have not regained their one time status.

Despite the world’s financial troubles Gallup found Americans placed bankers 6th in their ethical pecking order, after clergy.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions.aspx

http://umr.co.nz/sites/umr/files/umr_mood_of_the_nation_2012.pdf