The Harris Poll^® #91, December 16, 2005

The Nature Conservancy, AARP and US Chamber of Commerce are among the most trusted Beltway Groups

National Rifle Association and AARP are the top two recognized of these Beltway Groups

Among those who are familiar with them, The Nature Conservancy, the AARP and the US Chamber of Commerce are the most trusted Beltway organizations. Large majorities of those who are familiar with both the Nature Conservancy (79%) and AARP (77%) trust them and of those familiar with the US Chamber 70 percent say they trust them a great deal or a fair amount. Among the most familiar of these inside the Beltway organizations are the National Rifle Association (90%), AARP (89%) and Greenpeace (81%).

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive^® among 1,718 U.S. adults between November 15 and 22, 2005.

The main findings of the survey include:

While the National Rifle Association (NRA) is the most recognized of our groups, less than half of those familiar with them (48%) trust the NRA while 52 percent do not trust them.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) inspires the clearest overall divide among the 80 percent who are familiar with them; 49 percent trust the ACLU compared to 51 percent who do not trust them, yet they have the highest percentage of responses for ‘do not trust at all’ – 30 percent.
The organization that is trusted the least is the AFL-CIO. Among the three-quarters of adults who are familiar with them, only 41 percent trust them while 59 percent do not trust them.
While just under half (47%) of Americans are familiar with The Nature Conservancy, over three quarters of them (79%) trust The Nature Conservancy, including over one-quarter (27%) who trust them a great deal.

Not surprisingly there are a few partisan differences within the trust levels of these organizations. The largest difference is the 52 percentage points that separate the Republicans and Democrats over the ACLU – while 71 percent of Democrats trust them, only 19 percent of Republicans trust the ACLU. The largest difference going the other way is over the National Rifle Association. While almost three-quarters (73%) of Republicans trust the NRA, only 32 percent of Democrats feel the same way. The closest in partisan trust is the Brookings Institute with 71 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats saying they trust that organization.

TABLE 1

Familiarity with Organization

"Please indicate your familiarity with the following organizations."

Base: All Adults

	Familiar	Not Familiar
	%	%
NRA (National Rifle Association	90	10
AARP	89	11
Greenpeace	81	19
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)	80	20
US Chamber of Commerce	76	24
AFL-CIO	75	25
Sierra Club	64	36
The Nature Conservancy	47	53
Heritage Foundation	33	67
Brookings Institution	28	72
Common Cause	24	76
Cato Institute	21	79
Business Roundtable	11	89

TABLE 2

Trust in organization

"How much do you trust these organizations?"

Base: Adults Familiar with Organization (Variable Base)

		Trust (NET)	Great Deal	Fair Amount	Don’t trust (NET)	Not very much	Not at all
The Nature Conservancy	%	79	27	52	21	16	4
AARP	%	77	26	51	23	18	5
US Chamber of Commerce	%	70	11	59	30	26	4
Brookings Institute	%	63	12	51	37	30	7
Sierra Club	%	59	18	42	41	28	13
Common Cause	%	58	15	43	42	30	12
Business Roundtable	%	58	8	50	42	31	11
Heritage Foundation	%	57	13	44	43	27	16
Greenpeace	%	56	12	44	44	27	17
Cato Institute	%	51	8	43	49	35	14
ACLU	%	49	16	33	51	21	30
NRA	%	48	15	32	52	27	26
AFL-CIO	%	41	5	36	59	37	22

Note Trust is the net score of the "great deal" and "fair amount" responses; Don’t trust is the net score of the "not very much" and "not at all" responses.

TABLE 3

Trust in organization by party

"How much do you trust these organizations?"

Base: Adults Familiar with Organization (Variable Base)

			Party
		Trust	Republican	Democrat	Independent
The Nature Conservancy	%	79	68	85	80
AARP	%	77	71	84	74
US Chamber of Commerce	%	70	80	66	68
Brookings Institute	%	63	71	65	60
Sierra Club	%	59	38	81	58
Business Roundtable	%	58	81	45	50
Common Cause	%	58	45	61	65
Heritage Foundation	%	57	74	43	54
Greenpeace	%	56	35	73	54
Cato Institute	%	51	65	45	48
ACLU	%	49	19	71	52
NRA	%	48	73	32	40
AFL-CIO	%	41	21	63	37

Note Trust is the net score of the "great deal" and "fair amount" responses.

Methodology

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between November 15 and 22, 2005 among 1,718 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the various sub-samples listed in the tables above is higher and varies. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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Q600, Q605