Losing Confidence in Each Other

January 6, 2022

Chart showing percentage who say they have a certain level of trust and confidence in the wisdom of the American people when it comes to making political decisions.

So much research and commentary have focused on the decline of public trust in various institutions—the media, government, police, the justice system. But over the last decade, we have also seen an erosion of the confidence that Americans have in each other. According to the Pew Research Center, only 38 percent of Americans report they are confident that the “American people” will make wise political decisions. This represents a dramatic reversal from the past. In 1964, Gallup found that over three-quarters (77 percent) of Americans had trust and confidence in the wisdom of the American public when it came to making political decisions.

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Losing Confidence in Each Other

Survey Reports

An Unsettled Electorate: How Uncertainty and Apathy Are Shaping the 2024 Election

Generation Z and the Transformation of American Adolescence: How Gen Z’s Formative Experiences Shape Its Politics, Priorities, and Future

America’s Crisis of Confidence: Rising Mistrust, Conspiracies, and Vaccine Hesitancy After COVID-19

The Social Workplace: Social Capital, Human Dignity, and Work in America, Volume II

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