Gallup Poll Provides Food For Thought

I have previously blogged about the ethics and honesty of those who work in various professions based on a 2023 Gallup Poll.

Gallup published its 2023 results of a survey of honesty/ethics in the professions last year. The results speak volumes about which professions are trusted by most Americans. The most ethical profession is nurses with a 78% positive rating—high or very high in ethics. While this is a relatively strong rating, it has declined by 7% since the 2019 survey. This follows a declining trend in all professions.

Rating the Professions

The professions that follow nurses with positive ratings include veterinarians (65%), engineers (60%), dentists (59%), medical doctors (56%), and pharmacists (55%). In each case, the ratings have declined since the 2019 survey. Both medical doctors and pharmacists have declined by 9% since that survey and so have police officers who went from 54% positive in 2019 to 45% in 2023.

For some reason, Gallup has not separately included the ratings for accountants, although a deeper dive into the results do provide that information. The reason I have chosen to write about the ratings for accountants today is it has been my chosen profession for over 40 years, most of which have been in academia.

The historical results appear below. For the most part, the results are around 40% high and very high. Add in the 50% average rating and we can see that the accounting profession is highly regarded by the public. This is not surprising to me because of the strong public interest ideal that underlies the audit function. The public trusts accountants (CPAs) to audit public company financial statements and render an opinion on whether they fairly preset the financial condition and operations of the company.

What Does AI Say?

Integrity refers to the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. In the context of the AICPA Code of Conduct, it means that accountants should perform their professional duties with honesty, fairness, and responsibility, and transparency. They should ensure that the financial statements are reliable. They should not engage in any activities that could discredit the profession.

Integrity. Integrity, in the context of CPA ethics, refers to acting in a way that promotes accuracy, honesty, and transparency in financial reporting to ensure that financial statements and disclosures are reliable.

Just out of curiosity I posed the question to AI about Integrity as it pertains to accountants. Not surprisingly, it is the most important core value of professionals who serve the public interest.

Key points about integrity for CPAs:

Comparison With Other Professions

CPAs are in the unique position of being required to put the interests of the public ahead of those of the client, their employer, and even self-interest. There is no other profession with such an ethical burden. Lawyers are expected to place their clients' interests above all else, unless the client may do serious damage to others. Medical professionals must keep patient information confidential unless they have a condition that threatens public health and welfare.

I looked back at the results that are included in my previous blog on the 2023 Gallup Poll 'Honesty/Ethics in the Professions' to see where accountants compare to other professionals using the high/very high rating. Accountants fall more or less in the middle of the pack. They trail the following professions.

• Nurses (78%)
• Veterinarians (65%)
• Engineers (60%)
• Dentists (59%)
• Medical doctors (56%)
• Pharmacists (55%)
• Police officers (45%)
• College teachers (42%)
• Accountants (41%)

We could say that accountants trail those who work in the 'helping' professions. Also, accountants rate higher than all other professions [non-helping, at least directly] except engineers. It’s nice to see college teachers rated highly.

Professions that trail accountants include the following.

• Psychiatrists (36%)
• Chiropractors (33%)
• Clergy (32%)
• Bankers (19%)
• Journalists (19%)
• State governors (16%)
• Business executives (12%)
• Insurance salespeople (12%)
• Stockbrokers (12%)
• Advertising practitioners (8%)
• Car salespeople (8%)
• Senators (8%)
• Members of Congress (6%)

It is not surprising to me that our elected officials are rating so low. The fact that the public has ver5y little confidence in top government officials is well known. Also, note that there is a steep drop-off from the clergy and bankers.

What Can Accountants Do to Improve Their Rating?

There is a great deal of concern about the direction accountants are taking with respect to their honesty and ethics. Even though the Gallup results are relatively similar from year to year, there are growing pressures in the profession that give me pause. These include:

• Pressure imposed by top management on accountants to 'hype' the numbers.
• Pressure imposed by clients to make the company's results reflect management's story about the financial statements, not the way they should show with respect to financial results. 
• Relationships between auditors and client/client management that can compromise objectivity and independence.
• New forms of ownership (i.e., SPACs and private equity) that challenge auditors/audit firms ability to avoid conflicts of interest.
• A decline in talent available to enter the profession and help resolve the 'pipeline' problem, as well as lacking due care in the performance of professional services.
• Failure of rules to keep up with growing technologies for cryptocurrencies, etc.

There are, of course, other pressures. The point is these challenges may cause the rating of accountants to decline. Let's hope not, otherwise the historic trend of high/very high ethics could be compromised. 

Posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on March 11, 2025. You can sign up for his newsletter and learn more about his activities at: https://www.stevenmintzethics.com/.e way management