Oil, Pharmaceutical, Health Insurance, and Tobacco Top The List Of Industries That People Think Should Be More Regulated

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Harris Poll finds that the oil, pharmaceutical, health insurance and tobacco industries top the list of industries that people believe should be more regulated. These industries, as well as the telecommunications and automobile industries, are the least likely to be thought of as honest and trustworthy. The telecommunications and managed care industries are the least trusted to handle personally identified information.

On the positive side, few people say supermarkets, computer hardware and software companies, hospitals and online retailers should be more regulated.

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These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,151 adults surveyed online between November 8 and 15, 2010 by Harris Interactive®.

The main findings of this survey include:

• When asked which of a list of 17 industries are generally honest and trustworthy, almost half (48%) of all adults say "none of these" which is the highest number giving this negative response since we first asked this question in 2003;
• The industries that are trusted by the most people are supermarkets (29%), hospitals (29%), banks (20%) and electric and gas utilities (19%).  The industries that are trusted by the fewest people are tobacco (2%), oil (4%), telecommunications (7%), and managed care companies (7%);
• The industries that the largest numbers of people believe should be more regulated are oil (47%), pharmaceuticals (46%), health insurance (42%), tobacco (38%), banks (34%), and managed care (34%); and,
• Majorities of the public say that they have at least some trust in industries that handle personally identifiable information to do so in a confidential and secure manner, including banks (70%), hospitals (69%), life insurance (57%), health insurance (55%), online retailers (55%), software companies (54%) and pharmaceutical companies (53%).  However, less than a quarter of all adults have a "great deal of trust" in any industry.

Large changes over time

There have been substantial changes in the ratings of some industries over the last few years as a result of major crises affecting them as well as changes in media coverage:

• Trust in the honesty of banks fell sharply from 40% in 2004 to only 12% in 2009.  This has recovered modestly to 20% this year. Those favoring more regulation of banks jumped from 17% in 2006 to 40% in 2009, and has now fallen back a little to 34% this year.
• In 2003, fully 60% of adults wanted to see more regulation of managed care companies and 59% wanted to see more regulation of the health insurance industry. These numbers have fallen to 34% and 42% respectively – still high compared to most other industries but far better than they were.

So what?

Public attitudes to different industries are multi-facetted.  For example banks get relatively good marks for handling confidential personal information and are more trusted than most other industries, but they are also high on the list of industries that people think should be more regulated.  These attitudes can also change substantially if an industry is in crisis or receives a great deal of media publicity.  And, these public attitudes matter a great deal.  An industry with high negative ratings on criteria like these is more likely to be attacked by political leaders and the media and will therefore be more likely to be the target of regulatory or legislative action.

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States November 8 and 15, 2010 among 2,151 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of Harris Interactive.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

J39117

Q905, 910, 915

The Harris Poll^® #149, December 2, 2010

By Humphrey Taylor, Chairman, The Harris Poll, Harris Interactive

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

SOURCE Harris Interactive

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