Who do you trust when it matters? A stunning number of polls suggests that the answer is not experts, but those approaching us: friends and family. Last week, Gallup released a new poll At sources Americans are turning to advice on their finances. Even in this complex area – which is particularly sensitive at the moment, given the uncertainty about the economy orbit – the Americans turned to sources near the home first. Forty -three percent said they asked friends and family for financial information and tips, followed by financial advisers and designers (41%) and financial institutions (36%). Twenty percent chose podcasts and separate, social media, books and television or radio programs.
Turning to friends and family members to help with finances is not a new phenomenon. In 1982, when asked by the Roper Organization for which they will turn on tips on how to save or invest money, the top source was family and friends. A 2011 poll by National Journal/Allstate found that when asked about six sources of information on financial decisions and retirement, more people have said they had confidence in family and their friends very much than they gave their employer, their employer, Non -profit organizations.
At the end of February and early March, when Axios/Ipsos They asked people how much confidence in various institutions and people on health issues, 85% said they trusted their family doctor in a large or just amount followed by friends and family (73%). Sixty -two percent had high confidence in CDC, but as Ipsos pointed out, “trust [in the CDC] It has dropped almost 25 points since March 2020, when 88% of Americans trusted the CDC. “In the poll, 31% had this high level of confidence in Donald Trump, and separately, Robert F. Kennedy, younger, and 23% in Elon Musk. Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking PollMany more people said they would trust their family doctor (83%) to provide reliable information about vaccines and separately the pediatrician (81%) and the local Health Department (66%) than the federal government or President Trump (37%). (41%).
To take other areas when asked about buying insurance in a 2024 Norc poll for consumer reportsPeople said they would turn to the insurance company they use first, followed by friends and family.
As a final example, the Pew Research Center asked people about confidence in various sources for news. Seventy -four percent said they trust local media too much or some, followed by friends and family (71%), national media (58%) and social media (37%). Local media confidence has remained stable since Pew asked in 2016. Confidence in national media had been significantly reduced.
These examples show a public opinion. People generally have more confidence in sources near the home and the biggest skepticism for institutions such as the government in Washington and national media that are far from their daily concerns. My colleague Aei Tony Mills, writing the volume of Spring 2025 Science and technology issuesHe noted a “new compassion that a growing share of public reports to powerful institutions – scientifically and otherwise”. People realize that the powerful institutions, Mills says, are “non -sensitive, not responding or even hostile to their own priorities and concerns.” This has clearly contributed to the sharp drop in Axios/Ipsos found in positive CDC views during the pandemic.
Late Dan yankelovichA pioneer and social scientist of public opinion, he spent much of his career, studying how people reach their views and his work provides an additional picture of why the common hugs those close to them. The ordinary people, he said, do not think as experts inhabiting government departments. For experts, the accumulation of real material is the key. The average people “form their judgments through interactions with other people … People weigh what they hear from others against their own beliefs, evaluate the views of others on the basis of what makes sense to them.” Above all, he says, “they advise their values and feelings”. They do not “distinguish objective events and values” the way journalists, experts and others do. The information is not insignificant for all of us, he says, but it is not “the royal road to the crisis”. It is not surprising that when they make important decisions, most people start with people who know and trust them who share their experiences and values and respect them.
