The Harris Poll® # 123, December 11, 2007

Among all adults who are familiar with them, Consumer Reports, The American Red Cross, AARP, the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are the most trusted among 16 large organizations that influence politics and business in Washington. Moveon.org, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the ACLU, the NRA and the AFL-CIO are the least trusted. However, even these organizations are trusted "a great deal" or "a fair amount" by 45 percent or more of all adults.

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,455 adults surveyed online between November 7 and 13, 2007 by Harris Interactive®. This survey focused on 16 organizations that have considerable influence on public policy, business and are frequently covered by the media.

The first question asked the public how familiar they are with these 16 organizations. The organizations that are familiar to the largest number of people are:

• The American Red Cross 96%
• Consumer Reports 86%
• The AARP 85%
• The National Rifle Association (NRA) 83%
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce 79%

The organizations on the list that the fewest people are familiar with are:

• The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) 12%
• The Brookings Institution 22%
• The Environmental Defense Fund 24%
• Moveon.org 30%
• The Heritage Foundation 33%
• National Association of Home Builders 39%

Among those who are familiar with them the most trusted organizations (based on those who trust them "a great deal" or "a fair amount") are:

• Consumer Reports 91%
• The American Red Cross 86%
• AARP 83%
• The Nature Conservancy 83%
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce 73%

The least trusted organizations on the list are:

• Moveon.org 45%
• The American Enterprise Institute 48%
• The ACLU 50%
• The NRA 52%
• The AFL-CIO 52%

It is noteworthy that all of these five organizations take strong and often controversial positions on political issues.

The organizations listed that are believed to have the most power, based on the number of people who are thought to have "a "great deal" or "a fair amount" of power (as percentages of those who are familiar with them) are:

• The AFL-CIO 84%
• The N.R.A. 83%
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce 81%
• The ACLU 81%
• The Brookings Institute 78%
• The American Enterprise Institute 77%

The organizations thought to have the least power are:

• Greenpeace 45%
• The Nature Conservancy 45%
• Consumer Reports 48%
• Moveon.org 50%
• The Sierra Club 54%

It is interesting that three of these are environmental organizations.

There is a big difference between the organizations that are most trusted and those that are believed to be the most powerful. However some well trusted organizations are also seen as having power in Washington; specifically, the American Red Cross, the AARP, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On the other hand three organizations that are not highly trusted are widely perceived to be powerful - the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the AFL-CIO and the NRA.

TABLE 1

"Please indicate your familiarity with the following organizations"

(Percentage who say they are familiar)

Base: All Adults

Note: N/A indicates organization not asked about in that year

"How much do you trust these organizations?"

Base: Adults Familiar With Organizations (Variable Base)

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% because of rounding　

"How much do you trust these organizations?"

Base: Adults Familiar with Organization (Variable Base)

Note: N/A indicates organization not asked about in that year

"How much power within Washington, DC do you believe these organizations have?

Base: Adults Familiar With Organizations (Variable Base)

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% because of rounding

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between November 7 and 13, 2007 among 2,455 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 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 population. 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.

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