Story at a glance
- U.S. institutions hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic garnered higher confidence ratings by the American public.
- Banks, religious organizations and small businesses also reported increases in confidence.
A wave of confidence in American institutions, specifically in medical systems and public schools nationwide, is surging as the coronavirus pandemic is challenging them both.
Gallup reports that new national data showcases that confidence in health care systems and schools has sharply increased over the year by 15 points and 12 points, respectively.
Hospitals and other health care systems have been ravaged by the influx of coronavirus cases in the U.S. since the virus hit stateside in March. Frontline workers, such as nurses, doctors and other emergency medical workers, have risked their lives treating COVID-19 patients while facing dwindling resources like ventilators and personal protective equipment.
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Given these circumstances, 51 percent of Gallup survey respondents said that they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in U.S. medical systems. Gallup notes that this is the highest figure on record since the firm started polling for it in 1993.
Public school systems, which are grappling with the decision to reopen remotely or with in-person classes, also saw a sharp uptick in confidence among Americans. With 41 percent of Americans stating that they have either “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in public schools, this is the highest reading since 2004. Moreover, the percentage of Americans who feel confidence in U.S. public schools showcased a strong 12 percentage point increase from 2019 data.
“Double-digit increases in confidence for any institution are exceedingly rare,” researchers at Gallup note. “This has occurred only nine times in more than four decades of measuring confidence. Many of these involved heightened confidence in the military when the U.S. was at war or reflected significant changes in presidential job approval ratings.”
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Previous data from Gallup supports the observation that American confidence in institutions rises during instances of national change. From 2008 to 2009, when Barack Obama was elected into his first presidential term, national confidence in the presidency rose by 25 points to 51 percent from 26 percent.
More data from this survey shows that other U.S. institutions have shown similar increases in confidence among Americans, including banks, religious organizations and small businesses. Small businesses, the military and the U.S. medical system are the only institutions to showcase majority-level confidence readings, or ratings above 50 percent.
Conversely, police departments are witnessing record lows in American confidence. Usually, police departments showcase consistently high confidence, posting a record high in 2004 with 64 percent of Americans saying they have “a great deal” of confidence in law enforcement. Now, 2020 data reports that just 48 percent of Americans polled feel confident in police, which is the first time Gallup has recorded public confidence falling below the majority mark of 50 percent. This fall comes following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers, sparking nationwide Black Lives Matter protests decrying the U.S.’s history of racist police brutality.
This decline is highly partisan; Gallup notes that confidence in police actually jumped among respondents who identify as Republicans, giving an 82 percent confidence reading. Democrat respondents, however, saw confidence in police falling by six points to 28 percent.
Other institutions recording declines in public confidence in 2020 are television news, newspapers, the criminal justice system and the U.S. Congress.
The national average of confidence in U.S. institutions, however, comes in at 36 percent, slightly higher than readings from 2011 to date.
The survey authors note that the institutions affected the hardest in times of adversity have garnered greater trust among the American public.
“Two institutions that have taken on tremendous risks and challenges during the pandemic to fulfill their respective duties for the U.S. public — the medical system and public schools — have earned significantly greater trust from Americans in the process,” the authors write. “Several other institutions that have been affected by the pandemic — small business, organized religion and banks — have also seen a rise in confidence.”
The survey was conducted by telephone interviews from June 8, 2020, to July 24, 2020, with a random sample of 1,226 U.S. adults. The margin of error is 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
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