Oil, Pharmaceutical, Health Insurance, Managed Care, Utilities and Tobacco Top the List of Industries That Many People Think Need More Regulation

Some industries are perceived as much more honest and trustworthy than others. Industries that are considered trustworthy tend to be ones that most people feel should not be more regulated. Those that are not considered trustworthy tend to be the ones people think should be more regulated.

Small majorities of U.S. adults think three industries should be more regulated than they are now: the oil industry (53%), pharmaceuticals and drug companies (53%), and health insurance companies (52%). Pluralities of Americans believe managed care companies, such as HMOs (45%), electric and gas utilities (41%) and tobacco companies (41%), should have more regulation. Just 15 percent or less of all adults believe that statements made by companies in these six industries are "generally honest and trustworthy." Tobacco (3%), oil (3%), managed care (5%), and health insurance companies (7%), are the industries least trusted.

The lowest percentages of people want to see supermarkets (9%), computer hardware and software companies (both 9%), online retailers (13%), banks (20%), and car manufacturers (22%) more strongly regulated.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 2,565 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive^® between October 9 and 15, 2007.

Over the past year, there has been a shift towards favoring more regulations. Of the 17 industries on our list, only two have not seen an increase in the proportion of adults who want to see them more heavily regulated: online retailers, which stayed the same as last year, and oil companies, which dropped one point (from 54% to 53%).

The two industries that increased the most are ones that have been in the news with issues during the past year. Packaged food companies went from 19 percent of U.S. adults believing they should be more regulated in 2006 to 30 percent this year – an increase of 11 points. Much of this increase is most likely due to the many food recalls that occurred in the past months. Airlines also experienced a big increase from last year as the numbers believing they should be more regulated increased 9 points (from 21% to 30%).

While the numbers may have gone up over the past year, the proportions of adults who want to see more regulations have mostly declined over the last five years. The biggest declines over five years are for:

• Managed care such as HMOs (down 15 points from 60% to 45%);
• Health insurance (down 7 points from 59% to 52%);
• Life insurance (down 7 points from 35% to 28%).

On the other hand, since 2003, four industries have seen modest increases the percentage of adults who want stronger regulation of these: packaged food companies (up four points); oil companies, computer hardware companies and supermarkets (each up 1 point).

Industry reputations are affected by experience, word of mouth and the media. What a few companies do can impact an entire industry. While not all airlines had people stranded on the tarmac for hours, those that did made it into the news – and people’s perceptions of the industry as a whole changed. When this perception changes, and the trust an industry may have is broken, the consumer looks to one group to step in to improve things – the government and government regulation.

"Which of these industries do you think should be more regulated by government – for example for health, safety or environmental reasons – than they are now?"

Base: All Adults

Note: multiple-response question n/a = industry not asked about that year

"Which of these industries do you think are generally honest and trustworthy – so that you normally believe a statement by a company in that industry?"

Base: All Adults

Note: multiple-response question n/a = industry not asked about that year

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a total of 2,565 adults October 9 and 15, 2007. Figures for age, sex, education, region and Internet usage were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult populations of the respective countries. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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