Doctors, Dentists and Nurses Most Trusted Professionals to Give Advice, According to Harris Poll of U.S. Adults

Different professions vary greatly in how much they are trusted to give their clients or patients good advice. According to a recent Harris Poll measuring U.S. adults’ trust in 11 different professions to give advice that is best for them, the professionals trusted completely by the greatest number of adults are doctors (50%), dentists (47%), and nurses (46%). At the other end of the list, those with the fewest adults saying they trust them completely are stockbrokers (6%), real estate agents (7%) and insurance agents (9%).

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,302 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive^® between March 17 and 21, 2006.

While no majority trusts any of the 11 professions completely, large majorities of adults, from 93 percent for doctors to 63 percent for stockbrokers, trust all of them completely or somewhat. Fewer adults, from 25 percent for stockbrokers to three percent for nurses, do not trust them at all.

Other professions included in this survey are:

• Accountants, trusted completely by 28 percent
• Lawyers, trusted completely by 18 percent
• Financial advisors, trusted completely by 16 percent
• Bankers, trusted completely by 16 percent, and
• Mechanics, trusted completely by 12 percent

In general, it seems that professionals who clearly try to sell something, such as stockbrokers, real estate and insurance agents, are less trusted than those who do not.

"If you were getting professional help or advice from each of the following, how much would you trust them to give you advice which was best for you?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Totals may not add exactly to 100% due to rounding.

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between March 17 and 21, 2006 among 2,302 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, 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.

All surveys are subject to several sources of error. These include: sampling error (because only a sample of a population is interviewed); measurement error due to question wording and/or question order, deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse (including refusals), interviewer effects (when live interviewers are used) and weighting.

With one exception (sampling error) the magnitude of the errors that result cannot be estimated. There is, therefore, no way to calculate a finite "margin of error" for any survey and the use of these words should be avoided.

With pure probability samples, with 100 percent response rates, it is possible to calculate the probability that the sampling error (but not other sources of error) is not greater than some number. With a pure probability sample of 2,302 adults one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 2 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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Harris Interactive Inc. 5/06