SALT LAKE CITY — It started as a joke, but the meme-driven frenzy to storm Area 51 has roots in a serious problem: About two-thirds of Americans believe their government intentionally withholds information that it could safely release.
That's among the findings of a new report, "Trust and Distrust in America," released Monday by Pew Research Center, which shows that Americans have widespread distrust, not only toward their institutions and elected officials, but also in each other.
Skepticism about the U.S. government's willingness to tell the truth explains not only why some people believe the government is hiding evidence of aliens at the remote Nevada military base known as Area 51, but also why some people don't trust the government to be truthful about vaccines or climate change.
And Americans say they find it difficult to discern what information is true, especially when politicians are talking; in fact, they find it easier to ferret out truth on social media. Forty-eight percent said it's very hard or somewhat hard to know what's true on social media, compared to 64% who say that about information that comes from elected officials.
The report also reveals a significant partisan divide when it comes to who can be trusted, with Democrats more likely to trust scientists, educators and journalists, and Republicans more trusting of the military, law enforcement and religious leaders.
Americans are also often distrustful of each other, with nearly 6 in 10 saying that others would try to take advantage of them if given the chance and that most of the time, people are looking out for themselves.
This may be in part because Americans are more isolated than they've been in eras past. "Our lives now don’t necessarily require us to interact with anyone else beyond a surface/nominal level if we do choose it to be that way," one respondent said.
On a happier note, large majorities believe trust can be regained, both on a national scale and in our neighborhoods, and Americans have ideas about how best to do that, said Lee Rainie, Pew's director of internet and technology research and co-author of the report, along with Scott Keeter and Andrew Perrin.
“One of the most striking parts was that there is pretty high hope that these issues could be not necessarily resolved, but improved,” Rainie said, adding, "There’s a very strong sense in these answers that if you begin to rebuild trust in communities, it might radiate up to these larger problems that are dominating the culture at the moment.”
Here's what Pew found, and some of the solutions that people taking part in the survey offered.
Who's to blame?
The survey of 10,618 U.S. adults was conducted Nov. 27-Dec. 10, 2018, and is part of Pew's ongoing focus on trust and democracy in a society in which "fake news" has become a dominant theme.
Majorities of Americans say levels of trust in the government and in each other are declining (75% and 64%, respectively). “Many people no longer think the federal government can actually be a force for good or change in their lives," one respondent said.
While it's not clear, due to limited research, that individuals' trust in each other has in fact steadily declined, the respondents' perception that trust in government is declining is accurate, according to Pew.
"Long-running surveys show that public confidence in the government fell precipitously in the 1960s and ’70s, recovered somewhat in the ’80s and early 2000s, and is near historic lows today," Rainie and his co-authors wrote.
Problems don’t seem to get solved, no one is held accountable, and the system never changes.
When asked to identify the reason for declining trust, nearly 4 in 10 blame the government's performance, corruption and money, and polarization and gridlock.
“Problems don’t seem to get solved, no one is held accountable, and the system never changes. Look at the (Veterans Administration), Social Security and the way (the) IRS is run. If these were private entities, they would have to fix their problems or go out of business. Nope, just more money get thrown in," one respondent said.
About 13% of respondents blame President Donald Trump specifically, although the answers were heavily skewed by political party (22% among Democrats, 3% among Republicans).
But Trump is not the only official to be mentioned. One woman said: “I don’t recognize my country. Left-wing mobs are out of control; the border is under siege; lack of morals and respect (especially our elected officials); lack of decorum and dignity during public hearings; crooks not being held accountable for their actions: CLINTON.” (She didn't say which Clinton.)
Meanwhile, about 1 in 10 respondents blame the news media for disseminating biased or deliberately misleading news.
And more than 6 in 10 say that low trust in government is making it harder to solve the country's problems, most of all concerning immigration and healthcare.
As for what Americans think about each other, that news isn't good either. About half of respondents said Americans aren't as reliable as they used to be. Only slightly more than half believe "most people can be trusted."
When asked why Americans don't trust each other as individuals, some said this is a trickle-down effect from politics and from the media. Others said it's an effect of polarization and social media, with Americans who now "converse in bubbles."
"We have lost the ability to have civil public discourse and to remember that good people can disagree," one respondent said.
A 'Fox News effect'?
Lee McIntyre, a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University who was not involved with the study, said that to him, the most shocking finding of the report was the degree to which party lines figure into who Americans trust the most.
I’m seeing the Fox News effect here. Why would people distrust scientists and college professors and journalists? Because they've been told not to (trust them). – Lee McIntyre, a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University
“For Republicans, the institutions that had the greatest confidence were the authority figures: the military, the police. The ones for the Democrats, the liberals, they were the truth tellers: the scientists, the teachers, the journalists.
"That suggests to me that what’s happened here is that levels of trust have been driven down (by others). I’m seeing the Fox News effect here. Why would people distrust scientists and college professors and journalists? Because they've been told not to (trust them)."
But there may also be an "MSNBC effect," he said, "where people are much more likely to be told they can't trust business leaders lying about climate change, or police officers."
Regardless of political affiliation, however, respondents had roughly equal levels of trust for elected officials. Just 36% of Democrats said they had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in elected officials, while 37% of Republicans did.
McIntyre, the author of "The Scientific Attitude," among other books, also noted something the Pew report said: that trust, while widely seen as a societal good, can also be bad if it is misplaced.
“Skepticism is a good thing when it’s earned,” McIntyre said. “You withhold judgment until evidence is sufficient to warrant your belief.”
In other words, just seeing something flash across your screen on Facebook or Twitter isn't sufficient reason to believe it, even if you know the person who shared it. And a person doesn't deserve trust just because he or she was elected to office. Seventy-five percent of Americans, according to the report, don't believe that the government and its agents deserve any more trust than they get.
The way forward
Rainie and his co-authors note levels of trust differ according to people's economic status and education, as well as their race.
"The more education someone has and the greater their household income, the greater the likelihood they sit higher on the personal trust spectrum," the report says.
About 22% of the population are "high trusters" who believe people can generally be trusted and usually try to help others, the report says. Whites are twice as likely blacks or Hispanics to fall into this category, as are older Americans.
About 35% are "low trusters." This group includes nearly half of young adults, Rainie said.
"Medium trusters" comprise about 41%.
Although high, low and medium trusters have different expectations about how people will behave in a variety of situations (such as honestly reporting their income and respecting the rights of people who are not like them), among all the respondents, there was optimism that, if people were kinder and more attentive to each other, that interpersonal trust would increase, Rainie said.
The more education someone has and the greater their household income, the greater the likelihood they sit higher on the personal trust spectrum.
On the national level, nearly a quarter recommend strategies such as increasing transparency in government, enacting term limits and curtailing the role of money in politics. Others suggest policy changes or new leadership.
Individuals can restore interpersonal trust by "being less tribal and partisan," being personally more kind, honest and trustworthy, respondents said.
"Seek common ground that engages as many as possible in the community and organize around a project that addresses that common concern," one 79-year-old woman said.
Similarly, a 66-year-old woman said, "Each one of us must reach out to others. Even people who are the same, but unknown to you, an individual may distrust. It takes interaction with people face-to-face to realize that we do all inhabit this space and have a vested interest in working together to make it a successful, safe and environmentally secure place to live."
McIntyre, at Boston University, agreed with the respondents that improvements on the national level begin in neighborhoods.
“The solution to distrust is engagement, the messy kinds of conversations that we have around the Thanksgiving table with people we don't see very often,” he said.
That applies not just to people who disagree about whether Trump is a good leader, but also those who believe differently about whether the government is hiding evidence of aliens at Area 51, or that the earth is flat. In fact, McIntyre went to the national convention of "flat-earthers" last year just to engage the participants in thoughtful conversation.
“I’m convinced that the only way you convince somebody is to engage with them one-on-one," he said.