Gallup: Confidence in Institutions

web

Gallup·news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx

Credibility Rating

4/5

High(4)

High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.

Rating inherited from publication venue: Gallup

Useful empirical reference for AI governance discussions about public legitimacy, regulatory trust, and the social preconditions for effective oversight institutions; illustrates why building trusted AI governance bodies is challenging amid broad institutional skepticism.

Metadata

Importance: 42/100organizational reportdataset

Summary

Gallup's long-running survey tracking American public confidence across major institutions including government, military, media, science, and business. Provides longitudinal data on trust trends, revealing broad erosion of institutional credibility over decades. Serves as a key empirical reference for understanding social trust dynamics relevant to governance and coordination challenges.

Key Points

•Tracks public confidence in ~15+ institutions annually including Congress, the presidency, military, courts, media, schools, and big business.
•Data spans decades, enabling analysis of long-term trust erosion trends across American society.
•Shows significant decline in confidence in many key institutions, with implications for democratic governance and collective action.
•Science and medicine generally retain higher trust than political and media institutions, relevant to AI governance credibility.
•Provides empirical grounding for arguments about legitimacy crises that could affect AI oversight bodies and regulatory institutions.

Review

The Gallup survey on confidence in institutions represents a critical snapshot of public perception and trust in various societal structures. By systematically measuring confidence levels across domains like business, government, education, and media, the study provides insights into the social and institutional dynamics of American society. While the provided excerpt lacks specific numerical data, such surveys are typically valuable for understanding public sentiment, tracking institutional trust over time, and identifying potential areas of social and governance challenge. The research method appears to use a standardized questionnaire with a scale ranging from 'great deal' to 'very little' confidence, allowing for nuanced measurement of public trust.

Cited by 3 pages

Page	Type	Quality
Trust Cascade Failure Model	Analysis	58.0
AI Trust Cascade Failure	Risk	55.0
AI-Driven Trust Decline	Risk	55.0

Cached Content Preview

HTTP 200Fetched Feb 22, 20263 KB

Confidence in Institutions | Gallup Historical Trends
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 

 




 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 Notice: JavaScript is not enabled. Please Enable JavaScript Safely . 
 
 skip to main content 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 


 

 

 

 
 In Depth: Topics A to Z 
 Confidence in Institutions 
 
 


 
 
 Share on LinkedIn 

 Share on Twitter 

 Share on Facebook 

 Share via Email 

 Print 

 
 

 
 


 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 


 

 

 


 

 




 

 
 
 
 

 
 

 

 Now I am going to read you a list of institutions in American society. Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in each one &mdash; a great deal, quite a lot, some or very little? 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 ###Embeddable### 

 
 
 


 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Higher Education Table" scrolling="no" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"> 

 

 

 News on the Internet" scrolling="no" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"> 

 

 

 Health Maintenance Organizations" scrolling="no" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"> 

 


 

 
 Related Topics Include:


 Business Congress Education Financial Services Institutions and Infrastructure Media Military Politics Supreme Court The Presidency Trends A to Z 

 

 
 
 
 Access Crucial Data for Your Research

 

 Search, examine, compare and export nearly a century of primary data.

 Learn More about Access Crucial Data for Your Research 
 
 


 
 

 

 

 
 Recommended


 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 World Jul 22, 2025 

 Confidence in National Institutions May Have Local Roots 

 

 Gallup World Poll data show a strong association between people's satisfaction with local conditions and their confidence in national institutions.

 
 

 
 
 
 Politics Jul 17, 2025 

 Democrats' Confidence in U.S. Institutions Sinks to New Low 

 

 Democrats' average confidence in key U.S. institutions has dropped to a new low point in Gallup's trend dating back to 1979, while Republicans' has risen significantly.

 
 

 
 
 
 Education Jul 16, 2025 

 U.S. Public Trust in Higher Ed Rises From Recent Low 

 

 More Americans say they are confident in higher education now than a year ago, the first increase Gallup has measured in the decade-old 

... (truncated, 3 KB total)

Resource ID: 9bc684f131907acf | Stable ID: M2NhYjE0ZT