Comparing Canadian and American perceptions of occupations/professions

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1 Comparing Canadian and American perceptions of occupations/professions Claude Balthazard, Ph.D., C. Psych, CHRL Human Resources Professionals Association April 4, 2018 The Gallup Organization has been surveying Americans annually on the honesty and ethical standards of various occupations/professions since More recently, Insights West, out of Vancouver, has begun surveying Canadians on the level of respect they have for various occupations/professions. Of course, the interesting question is how do Canadians and Americans compare in regards to their opinions of the occupations/professions? The Gallup survey and the Insights West survey had twenty occupations/professions in common. Because of this overlap in the occupations/professions included in each survey, this question can be answered but there are other interesting findings along the way. Differing methodologies Of course, the difference of interest is that the Gallup survey is a survey of Americans and the Insights West survey is a survey of Canadians but there are other differences as well. There were differences in methodology. Gallup used telephone interviews and Insights West used an online panel. More importantly, however, is that the question asked was not quite the same. Gallup Please tell me how you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields? very high, high, average, low or very low Insights West All things considered, do you have a positive or negative opinion of each of the following professions? Very positive Somewhat positive Somewhat negative Very negative Not sure Gallup conducts a poll each year of how Americans view the honesty and ethics in a variety of professions. Not every profession appears every year some professions/occupations appear every few years and some occupations/professions were added over time. Over the years, forty-three 1

2 professions/occupations have been included at least once. Gallup describes its 2017 survey methodology as follows 1 : Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted December 4 to 11, 2017, with a random sample of 1,049 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Insights West conducted their first Most Respected Professions survey on Canadians perceptions of various occupations/professions in 2016 and repeated the survey again in The Insights West survey gathered Canadians opinions on twenty-seven occupations/professions. Insights West described its 2017 survey methodology as follows 2 : Results are based on an online study conducted from May 26 to June 2, 2017, among a representative sample of 1,257 Canadian adults. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. The margin of error which measures sample variability is +/- 2.8 percentage points. The sample sizes were quite similar. The 2017 Gallup survey results were based on 1,049 respondents whereas the Insight West survey results were based on 1,257 respondents. In reporting the results, both Gallup and Insights West typically report the familiar top two box percentage (although both Gallup and Insights West also published the detailed response by option) 3,4. For the Gallup survey, this is the percentage of respondents indicating that the honesty and ethical standards of individuals as high or very high for a given occupation/profession. For the Insights West survey, this is the percentage of respondents indicating that they had a somewhat positive or very positive opinion of a given occupation/profession. Common occupations/professions For the most part, it was a straightforward matter to match occupations/professions across the two surveys. As would be expected, there are some occupations/professions which appear on the Gallup survey which do not appear on the Insights West survey and vice-versa. For instance, scientists, farmers, architects, athletes, actors/artists, and pollsters appear on the Insights West survey but not on the Gallup survey. Conversely, firefighters, pharmacists, day care providers, and chiropractors appear on the Gallup survey but not on the Insights West survey. Interestingly, whereas the Insights West survey has

3 the single occupation politician, the Gallup survey differentiates between local officeholders, state officeholders, state governors, senators, and members of Congress. What is important, however, is that both surveys share a core of twenty occupations/professions and that these occupations/professions represent a broad spectrum of occupations/professions. Table 1 below gives the twenty professions in common to both surveys and their scores on each survey. The first thing to notice is that the scores are definitely on different scales. The scores for different occupations/professions on the Insights West survey are between 2 and 42 percentage points higher than for the Gallup survey, with a mean difference of 25.6 points higher. Such differences are not surprising given that the questions asked were different. Gallup 3 Insights West Minimum Maximum Median Mean Range Standard deviation Are Canadians just nicer with their ratings? Because the different wordings of the questions and nationality are perfectly confounded, this is a question that cannot be answered. It may be that Canadians are more generous in their ratings of occupations/professions, or it may be that the wording used by Insights West pulls for higher ratings or some of both. What is interesting, however, is the relative position of the various occupations/professions in the Gallup and Insights West surveys. Just by visual inspection, it is apparent that occupations/professions that get a relatively high score in one survey get relatively high scores on the other and that occupations/professions that get a relatively low score in one survey get a relatively low score on the other. For the twenty occupations/professions in common to both surveys, the correlation coefficient was found to be.88, which is stunningly high. This means that the relative position of occupations/professions is very similar in the US and Canada, and this despite differences in methodology and differences in the actual question asked. (For those who are interested in such matters, the 95% confidence interval for the population correlation coefficient is.716 to.951.) The strength of association between Gallup and Insights West survey scores is not artefactual. An important consideration is that the twenty common occupations/professions be representative of the full range of scores. The reason being that if the range of scores among the twenty common occupations/professions was less than for the full set of occupations/professions, there would be a restriction of range which would attenuate the correlation between the two sets of scores. Also, if the range of scores among the twenty common occupations/professions were greater than for the full set of occupations/professions, the correlation between the two sets of score would be inflated. The range of

4 scores in the twenty common occupations/professions appears to be representative of the full range of scores. In other words, the relative positions of the various occupations/professions in the Gallup and Insights West surveys is very close indeed. In fact, the only way that such a strong correlation coefficient would obtain is if: (1) the constructs measured by the two surveys are ostensibly the same, and (2) that Canadians and Americans are in strong agreement with respect to their attitudes towards occupations/professions. Table 1: Scores for the twenty occupations/professions in common to both surveys Insights West Most Respected Professions survey (2017) Canadian sample (n=1,257) Occupation/profession Percent positive 4 Gallup Honesty/Ethical standards survey (2017) US sample (n=1,049) Occupation/profession Percent Very High or High Nurses 92 Nurses 82 Doctors 89 Medical Doctors 65 Veterinarians 88 Veterinarians (2006) 71 Teachers 85 Grade School Teacher 66 Engineers 84 Engineers (2016) 65 Dentists 81 Dentists (2016) 59 Accountants 81 Accountants (2015) 39 Police Officers 76 Police Officers 56 Auto mechanics 74 Auto mechanics 32 Military officers 73 Military officers 71 Psychiatrists 73 Psychiatrists (2016) 38 Judges 72 Judges 43 Journalists 62 Journalists 23 Priests/Ministers 59 Clergy 42 Building contractors 54 Building contractors (2015) 25 Bankers 50 Bankers 25 Realtors/Real Estate Agents 50 Real Estate Agents (2015) 20 Lawyers 50 Lawyers 18 Business executives 47 Business executives 16 Car Salespeople 28 Car Salespeople 10 Two questions, same construct There is a difference between the question asked and the underlying construct tapped by the question. At the surface, Gallup s question specifically references honesty and ethics whereas Insights West references the overall attitude towards the occupation/profession. However, the very high correlation between the scores on the Gallup and Insights West surveys suggest that both questions are getting at

5 the same thing (construct being just a fancy word for thing). For instance, temperatures measured in Fahrenheit will have higher values than temperatures measured in Celsius but the temperature is the same. Of course, the correlation between the same temperatures measured in Fahrenheit and measured in Celsius would be close to 1.0 (there will always be some measurement error), but a correlation coefficient of.88 is not far behind especially when we consider that there are likely real differences in the opinions of Canadians and Americans The results suggest that these two questions are tantamount to asking the same thing. The questions may worded differently, but they are getting at the same thing (construct). The most likely explanation is that honesty and ethical standards are the most important consideration in the all things considered of the Insights West question. In other words, it is the perception of the level of honesty and ethical standards that seems to drive the overall attitude towards an occupation/profession. Canadians and Americans have very similar perceptions of the honesty and ethical standards of occupations/professions The very high correlation between the scores on the Gallup survey and the Insights West survey also means that Canadians and American have very similar perceptions of the honesty and ethical standards of different occupations/professions. Some of the differences are not surprising. For instance, military officers are given a relatively higher rating in the US than in Canada. Car salespeople are given a relatively lower rating in the Canada than in 5

6 the US. Interestingly, accountants are given a relatively higher rating in Canada than in the US. By and large, however, the relative ratings for occupations/professions are surprisingly similar between Canada and the US. Summary Of course, the surprise finding here was the strength of the association between Canadians and Americans perceptions of occupations/professions. A moderate correlation coefficient could be explained by either or both differences in the wording of the question and differences in the opinions of Canadians and Americans. However, a very strong correlation coefficient can only happen if the different wordings for the questions do not change the essence of the question and that the opinions of Canadian and Americans in regards to occupations/professions are also very similar. There are real differences in how occupations/professions are regulated in Canada and in the US. Such differences, however, seem to have little impact on the perceived honesty and ethical standards of the various occupations/professions. 6