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Lawyers viewed as more ethical than car salespeople and US lawmakers

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 30, 2024, 3:40 pm CST

Only 16% of Americans rate lawyers’ honesty and ethical standards as “high” or “very high,” according to a Gallup poll taken in December.

The percentage has decreased since 2022, when 21% of Americans said lawyers had high or very high honesty and ethical standards, and since 2019, when the percentage was 22%, according to a Jan. 22 press release with results of Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics poll.

Lawyers did better than business executives, insurance salespeople and stockbrokers. Twelve percent of Americans viewed those occupations as having high or very high ethics and honesty. The percentage decreased to 8% for advertising practitioners, car salespeople and senators, and 6% for members of Congress.

Party differences affect the ratings. Twenty percent of Democrats or those who lean Democratic viewed lawyers as having very high or high honesty and ethical standards, compared to 14% of Republicans and people who lean Republican.

On the positive side, the honesty and ethics rating for lawyers was not at its all-time low, as it was for pharmacists, clergy, journalists and senators.

The most trusted profession was nursing, with 78% of Americans thinking that nurses have high or very high honesty and ethical standards. MedPage Today noted that finding.