Trust in federal government falls
It will probably come as no surprise that most Americans distrust the federal government.
A new study released Monday by the Pew Research Center has found that to be true and that Americans largely perceive trust in Washington to be shrinking. But the deep skepticism is not reserved solely for politicians, according to the survey: Almost two-thirds of respondents said they thought trust in each other had declined, too.
The report paints a rather dreary picture of how Americans today feel about their political leaders, the news media and their neighbors down the block.
“Americans are worried that distrust in the government and in others is taking a toll on the nation,” said Lee Rainie, director of internet and technology research at the Pew Research Center. “They believe that distrust gets in the way of solving some pressing problems, that it flows from a broken political culture and that it keeps neighbors apart.”
But the report, which drew responses from 10,618 people in late 2018, also offered a few reasons for optimism. More than 8 in 10 survey respondents said they believed that trust in federal officials and confidence in each other could improve — though there was far less agreement on how that could be accomplished.
Broadly speaking, about a fifth of adults displayed “consistently trustful attitudes,” roughly a third expressed consistently wary views, and the rest were somewhere in between. The researchers found levels of personal trust were associated with race and ethnicity, age, education and household income. The share of white respondents who showed high levels of trust (27%), for instance, was twice as high as the share of black (13%) and Hispanic (12%) respondents combined.
In general, those who were more likely to be “high trusters” were older, more educated and had higher household incomes than “low trusters.”
“Americans who might feel disadvantaged are less likely to express generalized trust in other people,” the report said.
The generational gap in trust that emerged was especially striking. Almost half of young adults between the age of 18 and 29 fell into the low trust category. The same was true about only one-fifth of respondents 65 and older.
Overall, the Pew study found that three-quarters of Americans thought confidence in the federal government was slipping, and 64% said the same about trust in each other.
The survey also found that while Americans trusted each other to carry out certain civic responsibilities, confidence in each other did not extend to politics.
Respondents were basically split on whether they could count on their fellow Americans to accept election results regardless of who wins. An even higher share — 57% — said they were not confident that others would cast informed votes in elections.