---
title: "Findings at a glance: Medical doctors"
description: "Most Americans have positive overall views of medical doctors, and roughly half or more believe they can routinely count on medical doctors to do a good job, to show concern for patients’ interests and to provide fair and accurate information."
date: "2019-08-02"
authors:
  - name: "Travis Mitchell"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/08/02/findings-at-a-glance-medical-doctors/"
categories:
  - "Health Care"
  - "Health Policy"
  - "Medicine & Health"
  - "Trust in Science"
---

# Findings at a glance: Medical doctors

Most Americans have positive overall views of medical doctors, and roughly half or more believe they can routinely count on medical doctors to do a good job, to show concern for patients’ interests and to provide fair and accurate information. But about half of Americans see professional misconduct as at least a moderately big problem, and many are skeptical that doctors are usually transparent about conflicts of interest or take responsibility for mistakes, according to a new [Pew Research Center report](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/08/02/trust-and-mistrust-in-americans-views-of-scientific-experts).

#### Overall views

****

[![A majority of U.S. adults say medical doctors care about their patients' interests all or most of the time](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/PS_08.02.19_trust.in_.scientists_ataglance5.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/08/02/findings-at-a-glance-medical-doctors/ps_08-02-19_trust-in_-scientists_ataglance5-png/)

74% of Americans have a positive view of medical doctors.

#### Trust and mistrust

About half or more Americans say medical doctors usually care about their patients’ best interests (57%), do a good job providing diagnoses and treatment recommendations (49%) or provide fair and accurate information when making recommendations (48%).

But there is more concern over issues of scientific integrity: 15% say doctors are transparent about potential conflicts of interest all or most of the time, and 12% say doctors usually admit and take responsibility for mistakes.

Half of Americans say professional misconduct among medical doctors is at least a moderately big problem. Just 20% say misconduct by doctors usually leads to serious consequences.

#### Other notable findings

- Adults ages 50 and older are more likely than those under age 50 to trust medical doctors. For instance, a majority of those 50 and older (56%) say doctors do a good job providing diagnoses and treatment recommendations all or most of the time, compared with 42% of those under 50. And older adults (65%) are more likely than younger adults (49%) to believe medical doctors care about their patients’ best interests all or most of the time.
- Blacks (71%) and Hispanics (63%) are more likely than whites (43%) to see professional misconduct among medical doctors as at least a moderately big problem.
- [Medical doctors](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/08/02/americans-generally-view-medical-professionals-favorably-but-about-half-consider-misconduct-a-big-problem) are the most widely known of the six types of scientists on the Center’s survey. A large majority of U.S. adults say they are familiar with the role of medical doctors because of news reports (69%) or a personal relationship (65%).
- People who are more familiar with medical doctors have more positive and trusting views of them. For example, among those who say they know a lot about the work of medical doctors, most (65%) say doctors care about the best interest of their patients all or most of the time, compared with 53% of those who know only a little about medical doctors.

#### About the survey

The nationally representative survey from Pew Research Center was conducted among U.S. adults ages 18 and older. About half of the survey respondents (N=2,238) were asked about medical doctors; these responses have a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.7 percentage points. Before answering questions about this group, respondents were given the following brief description: “**Medical doctors** provide patients with diagnoses of disease and/or treatment recommendations to promote, maintain or restore a patient’s health.”