Confidence in leaders of the m military has gone up, while confidence in some other institutions is declining % ofU.S. adults who say they have a great deal of confidence in the people running each of these institutions
In the group’s 2018 General Social Survey, the most recent available, 44% of Americans overall have a great deal of confidence in the scientific community, while 47% have only some confidence and 7% have hardly any. This was roughly the same share as in 2016, when 40% said they had a great deal of confidence in scientific leaders. (The 4-percentage-point uptick does not reach statistical significance.)
Public confidence in the scientific community stands out as among the most stable of about a dozen institutions rated in the GSS since the mid-1970s. Confidence in medicine has been somewhat less stable, however. It declined in the early 1990s and has ticked downward again in more recent years, from 41% in 2010 to 36% in 2016 and 37% in NORC’s most recent survey.
Public confidence in the science community and in medicine is higher than in many other institutions. Confidence is highest for leaders of the military, with 60% expressing a great deal of confidence. At the opposite end of the spectrum, just 13% of Americans express a great deal of confidence in the press and 6% say the same about Congress. On average, confidence in institutions is lower today than it was in the mid-1970s.
Confidence in leaders of the m military has gone up,  | while confidence in some other institutions is  | declining  | % ofU.S. adults who say they have a great deal of confidence in the people  | running each of these institutions  | 100%  | 80  | 60  | Military  | 60  | 44 Scientific  | community  | 40  | Medicine  | 37  | Education  | 25  | 20  | Press  | 13  | 0  | '83  | '88  | '93  | '98  | 03  | '08  | '73  | '78  | '13  | '18  | Note: Respondents who gave other responses or who did not give an answer are not shown.  | Source: General Social Surveys, NORC.  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 