The latest Ipsos Trustworthiness Index reveals that doctors are considered the most trustworthy profession in Australia and globally. Advertising executives (14%) are the least trusted profession in Australia but are closely followed by social media influencers (15%), politicians (15%) and pollsters (16%).
Six in ten of the global public rate doctors as trustworthy (58%) and just 16% consider them untrustworthy. The next most trustworthy profession globally is scientists (56% trustworthy), followed by teachers (54%). Globally, politicians and social media influencers are the least trusted group (15%).
The Ipsos Trustworthiness Index survey, completed online by adults aged 18 and over across 32 countries including Australia, showed that while the most trustworthy profession varies across the countries covered, there is greater agreement on the professions considered to be untrustworthy, with politicians and social media influencers consistently topping the list across countries.
A snapshot of trustworthiness in Australia
In Australia, doctors are the most trustworthy profession (66%), followed by teachers (60%) and scientists (58%). They are followed by serving staff at a restaurant (49%), the police (48%), and armed forces (47%).
The professions most likely to be considered untrustworthy were social media influencers (61%), politicians generally (56%), advertising executives (49%), Government ministers (48%). They were followed by journalists (40%), bankers and clergy/priests (38%), and business leaders (36%).
Australia is one of 17 countries that had a positive score on the global Trustworthiness Index. The Index looks at the net trust score (the difference between the proportion considering a profession trustworthy and the proportion considering a profession untrustworthy). A positive index score means most of the professions listed have net positive scores – so more people consider them to be trustworthy rather than untrustworthy.
Snapshot of trustworthy profession findings
- Doctors, scientists and teachers the most trusted professions. Over half say doctors are trustworthy (58% on average across 32 countries), scientists (56%) and teachers (54%). Generally front-line public service workers (including members of the armed forces and the police) tend to be more trusted than not.
- Politicians are the least trusted, though ratings are not quite as bad as in 2018. Only 15% on average across 32 countries see politicians as trustworthy, once again ranking last in the Index.Generally, trust in government is low, with government ministers also in the bottom five, and only 28% trusting civil servants. However, trust in politicians and ministers has been gradually rising from its 2018 low, with both up 6 percentage points (pp) since then.
- Trust is rising for many professions. There has been a slight uptick since 2018 for some professions, including: judges (+5pp), lawyers (+8pp), pollsters (+6pp), clergy (+5 pp), bankers (+8pp), journalists (+6pp), business leaders (+4pp), and advertising executives (+5pp). However, business leaders, bankers, journalists and advertising executives all still receive negative net trustworthy scores
- Social media influencers not seen as trustworthy, but waiters are. Social media influencers are new to the Index this year and only politicians have a worst net trustworthiness score (only 15% finding them trustworthy). In other new professions added this year, serving staff at restaurants are the fourth most trusted profession (44%), but people are divided on taxi drivers, with 28% finding them trustworthy and 28% untrustworthy.
- Four in ten think ordinary people are trustworthy. They are twice as likely to be seen as trustworthy (38%) than untrustworthy (17%), and this has stayed remarkably steady since 2018. Trust is slightly higher among Baby Boomers (42%) than other generations.
Commenting on the findings, David Elliott, Deputy Managing Director, Ipsos Public Affairs Australia, said: “While there continues to be debate that society is losing faith in experts, our data again shows that in fact, scientists, doctors and teachers are held in high esteem both here and globally.
“The high levels of trust placed in many professions of crucial importance to our society are encouraging as they indicate that we don’t think society is completely broken. We still have a lot of trust in many important professions, like doctors, teachers, the armed forces and the police. What is perhaps more concerning for us as a society are the low levels of trust in politicians, government ministers, bankers, journalists, clergy/priests and business leaders.
“Encouragingly for my colleagues and industry, while pollsters sit close to the bottom on trustworthiness, this looks to be more a result of many being undecided rather than a strong sense of untrustworthiness. When we look at the proportions indicating a profession is untrustworthy, pollsters soar to equal 10th position – alongside TV news readers -as the most untrustworthy, well behind social media influencers, politicians, government ministers, advertising executives, bankers, clergy/priests, business leaders and journalists.”