April 21, 2023: Half (51%) of voters say that most Americans are too trusting of government. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 30% think most are too skeptical of government, and 13% say the balance is about right.
The survey also found that only a third (33%) trust the federal government to do the right thing just about all (6%) or most (27%) of the time. Forty percent (40%) trust the federal government to do the right thing only some of the time, and 26% rarely or never.
Methodology
The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on April 4-5, 2023. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc.
Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of registered voters.
Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3.1 percentage points.
Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left nearly a decade ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Survey Questions
Are most Americans too trusting of government or too skeptical of government?
- 21%-Much too trusting
- 30%-Somewhat too trusting
- 20%-Somewhat too skeptical
- 10%- Much too skeptical
- 13% -The balance is about right
- 5%-Not sure
Generally speaking, how often do you trust the federal government to do the right thing?
- 6%-Just about all the time
- 27%-Most of the time
- 40%-Only some of the time
- 26%-Rarely or never
- 1%-Not sure
Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is a political analyst, author, public speaker, independent public opinion pollster and columnist for Creators Syndicate. Read Scott Rasmussen's Reports — More Here.