healthmyths
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- Sep 19, 2011
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Americans' confidence in all three branches of government is at or near record lows, according to a major survey that has measured attitudes on the subject for 40 years.
The 2014 General Social Survey finds only
-- 23 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court,
-- 11 percent in the executive branch and
-- 5 percent in Congress.
But confidence[in the Obama executive branch] among Democrats has dropped some in recent years, too, from 25 percent in 2010
to 18 percent in 2014.
POOR MARKS FOR MEDIA, TOO
Confidence has decreased since the 1970s,
when about a quarter (25%) of Americans expressed a great deal of confidence in the press.
Now, a record low of 7 percent have a lot of confidence, while 44 percent have hardly any confidence at all.
Republicans are the least likely to express a lot of confidence in the press, at only 3 percent, but Democrats aren't far behind at 10 percent.
Only 1 in 10 has a lot of confidence in television, which is also near a record low.
The typical sample size was 1,500 prior to 1994, but increased to 2,700-3,000 until 2008, and decreased to 2,000 for the most recent surveys. Resulting margins of error are between plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the smaller sample sizes and plus or minus 2.2 percentage points for the larger sample sizes at the 95 percent confidence level.
The 2014 survey was conducted March 31-Oct. 11, 2014, among 2,538 American adults.
News from The Associated Press
The 2014 General Social Survey finds only
-- 23 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court,
-- 11 percent in the executive branch and
-- 5 percent in Congress.
But confidence[in the Obama executive branch] among Democrats has dropped some in recent years, too, from 25 percent in 2010
to 18 percent in 2014.
POOR MARKS FOR MEDIA, TOO
Confidence has decreased since the 1970s,
when about a quarter (25%) of Americans expressed a great deal of confidence in the press.
Now, a record low of 7 percent have a lot of confidence, while 44 percent have hardly any confidence at all.
Republicans are the least likely to express a lot of confidence in the press, at only 3 percent, but Democrats aren't far behind at 10 percent.
Only 1 in 10 has a lot of confidence in television, which is also near a record low.
The typical sample size was 1,500 prior to 1994, but increased to 2,700-3,000 until 2008, and decreased to 2,000 for the most recent surveys. Resulting margins of error are between plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the smaller sample sizes and plus or minus 2.2 percentage points for the larger sample sizes at the 95 percent confidence level.
The 2014 survey was conducted March 31-Oct. 11, 2014, among 2,538 American adults.
News from The Associated Press
