No trust in journalists and advertisers
Helping professions enjoy the highest level of trust in Switzerland. Journalists have lost 15 percentage points in trust, while advertisers have lost as many as 23 percentage points. These professional groups are now surpassed in low trust only by insurance agents and politicians.
The Trust in Professions Report 2016 is based on a global survey conducted by the GfK Association, which measures empirically surveyed trust in over 30 professions. Trust in the so-called uncontroversial professions such as firefighters, paramedics and technicians remained stable worldwide in 2016. By contrast, trust in the professions of bank employees, traders or salespeople, as well as judges and police officers, varies. On a global average, politicians occupy last place with a very low trust score. The Trust in Professions Report 2016 is based on 30,000 interviews conducted in 27 countries worldwide.
Allegations of corruption against FIFA, the world soccer association headquartered in Zurich, as well as several popular initiatives, such as "Against Mass Immigration," have recently kept the Swiss public very busy. The FIFA scandal has presumably fed doubts about sports officials. Added to this are doping tests on the Swiss national soccer team and a lost European Championship qualifying match against England shortly before this survey. At 35 percent, the Swiss trust professional athletes significantly less than they did in 2014.
Several other professions such as Journalists (31 percent) or Advertising professionals (26 percent) have lost trust. Journalists are least trusted in Japan (around 25 percent), while in France advertisers are not even rated as completely trustworthy by 20 percent of people.
On the other hand, increases in confidence can also be observed in Switzerland. Police officers (83 percent) and judges (77 percent), for example, could benefit from the overall improvement in crime clearance rates. Some changes must be attributed to the change in methods used in the current survey. Taken together, these developments lead to an average trust level of 65 percent, which - despite a drop of around 6 percentage points - still means global midfield.
Farmers have lost confidence, but with 79 percent approval they are still in the upper midfield. The industry's concentration on large farms with more intensive animal husbandry could be one reason for the decline. At the same time, state agricultural subsidies, whose reduction was announced at the end of 2015, are the subject of controversy. Thousands of farmers protested against the resulting real income losses. The abolition of the minimum exchange rate of the Swiss franc against the euro is now also causing problems for farmers, but is also affecting other export-dependent sectors as well as tourism.
