Americans’ distrust of politicians and business leaders has reached an “epidemic” level, driven by the Iraq war, the disputed 2000 presidential election and financial scandals, a Reuters/DecisionQuest poll revealed Wednesday.
The nationwide telephone survey of 1,100 adults found 61 percent of Americans had lost faith in leaders and institutions over the past four years.
The poll was conducted last week and had a margin of error of 2.96 percentage points.
“A significant proportion of people feel disenfranchised,” said DecisionQuest Chief Executive Philip Anthony. “It seems that there is an epidemic level of loss of trust here.”
“A constellation of issues is causing people to lose confidence in the state of the country,” he added.
The study showed politicians received “C” grades on a scale of A-plus, meaning totally trustworthy, to F, meaning totally untrustworthy. President Bush and Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, locked in a tight race for the White House, both received C grades.
Bush’s score resulted from more polarized rankings, with those viewing him as totally trustworthy balanced by others with a diametrically opposing view. Kerry’s rankings were more uniformly average.
Amid business scandals ranging from Enron to Martha Stewart, trust in corporate executives was hurt the most, with 63 percent of respondents reporting a drop in confidence in them. Executives, along with lawyers and entertainment celebrities, received the lowest trustworthiness score -- C minus.
Newspaper and television reporters received a “C” grade for trustworthiness. TV reporters are trusted less now than four years ago by 43.8 percent of Americans, while 39.4 percent said their trust in print reporters had eroded.
A number of major U.S. journalism outlets, including CBS, The New York Times, USA Today and CNN, have been tainted in recent years by flawed and false reporting.
When asked about specific factors causing an overall loss of trust, 34.5 percent cited the war in Iraq. The 2000 election controversy in Florida came in second with 16 percent. Other reasons included white-collar crime scandals with 14.4 percent and terrorism with 11.5 percent.
The poll showed more women, 66 percent, had lost confidence in leaders and institutions, than men, at 55 percent.
People’s views were divided along political and racial lines. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats reported a drop in trust, compared with 39 percent of Republicans. Among blacks, 84 percent said their trust had declined, compared with 57 percent of whites.
“This lack of trust is manifesting itself in jury verdicts,” Anthony said, referring to Americans’ growing suspicion of authority.
For example, over 60 percent of respondents said they would find in favor of the Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib who were abused by the American military if they were tried in U.S. courts. Almost 67 percent said they would side with a worker suing his employer for racial discrimination.
People most trusted their own families and firefighters, both graded A-minus. The next most trusted people, receiving B grades, were neighbors, police and doctors.
Los Angeles-based DecisionQuest is a trial consulting firm owned by Bowne & Co Reuters is a global information company providing information to the financial services, media and corporate markets.