LONDON, October 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Politicians are mistrusted by 97% of Brits and the only professions people trust less are car sales representatives and estate agents. We are twice as likely to trust a builder or plumber to give us an honest opinion over our local MP, according to the findings of a major impartiality study released today, by impartial price comparison service, PriceRunner.co.uk.
Ashley Cole is revealed as one of the least trusted celebrities, with 99% of Brits expressing their lack of confidence in the disgraced Chelsea footballer. On the other hand, Cheryl Cole's judging counterpart, brutally frank Simon Cowell is believed to tell the truth by a quarter of Brits.
Troubled singer, Amy Winehouse, was not far behind Cole in the reliability stakes, with only 3% convinced that she tells the truth. Brits are actually more likely to trust high-profile entrepreneurs such as Virgin boss Richard Branson and The Apprentice front-man Sir Alan Sugar than Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative party leader David Cameron.
Who do we trust?
PriceRunner.co.uk's study showed that Doctors are the most trusted professions and it is not just kids who respect their teachers, over half of UK adults named teaching as the most trustworthy profession.
But, it's not just people's professions that shape our perception of trust. Northerners are considered to be the most trustworthy, according to one in five Brits, followed by Southerners and the Scottish, each accounting for 8% of those surveyed. The Irish narrowly beat the Welsh by 2% to be named as the region that instils the most confidence.
Whilst the majority of people surveyed believe that trust crosses age groups, there is some favouritism towards the over 64s, whilst 18-24 year olds represent the age group we have the least faith in. Similarly, six out of ten people surveyed believe that there is no difference in gender when it comes to trust. However, 20% believe that women are more trustworthy compared to only 7% for men. Interestingly, women are less trusting of men than vice versa.
You can depend on...
Famed for calling a spade a spade, you can always rely on a northerner to tell it how it is, especially a good mannered, well turned out, retired lady. Ideally, she'll be an ex teacher or, even better, a former doctor or dentist! And, if that doesn't convince you, her warm smile will!
Watch out for...
A cheeky Irish fella, aged 18-24, working as a car salesman or estate agent. And, don't be fooled by those twinkling Irish eyes and good looks! He could try wearing a wedding ring or cleaning his shoes to improve his image.
Mind your Ps and Qs
The survey revealed that manners really do maketh man...and woman for that matter! Good manners top the list of attributes most likely to be associated with trustworthiness, with 56% of Brits naming this as a quality that would give them confidence. So, after remembering those important little words, "please" and "thank you", being well dressed, cited by over one in four of respondents, and having a nice smile, cited by 23%, are also good indications of trust.
However, the belief that traits such as being attractive or having large eyes are beneficial is negligible. Only a very small percentage of those surveyed believe that these qualities are a true indication of trustworthiness. In fact, 7% of people surveyed are more likely to trust someone wearing a wedding ring, 11% believe that clean shoes make a difference and a fifth respond best to people with a nice voice.
Commenting on the findings of the impartiality study, Mattias Berg, Managing Director of PriceRunner.co.uk, said: "It's clear that we all have a different perception of trust and what to look out for in order to identify the truth. We should therefore be careful about where we gather information and how our opinions are formed. This is particularly true in the online community."
He continued: "Addressing this, we created our pledge for the impartial price comparison truth* to offer our users certainty about the pricing information they get from us. Unlike other price comparison sites, we always ensure that we list the cheapest price first and include pricing information from all retailers, regardless of any advertising arrangements."
Notes for editors
*OUR PLEDGE FOR THE IMPARTIAL PRICE COMPARISION TRUTH
At PriceRunner.co.uk, we believe that all price comparison sites should offer impartial pricing information.
We feel so strongly about it, that we're pledging a series of guarantees about our company, signed by our UK Managing Director.
We will always list the cheapest price first, regardless of any commercial relationships with retailers
Other price comparison sites get paid to show the consumer certain prices first, but with PriceRunner, the first price is always the lowest price
We will be impartial and honest, showing the best products and prices without prejudice
At PriceRunner we actively search for and list non-paying retailers to give you a comprehensive and impartial view of all the prices available for a product.
If you find the product you wish to buy cheaper anywhere else, email us at cheapestprice@pricerunner.com and we'll review the retailer and its offering, and if they meet our criteria we will make our best efforts to list it within two working days.
We will genuinely check millions of prices and update them constantly to provide the lowest price available
PriceRunner's technology scans thousands of websites across the internet daily to find a price match to products held within our database. To complement this process we also have a team of over 70 full-time 'PriceRunners' that manually add any prices and/or products that fall out of our automated matching process.
We also have a team of people in the UK, France, Sweden, Germany and the US that manually add retailers to our database that our spider does not pick up automatically, based on their local market knowledge
We expect the very best from our third party category partners (*)
There are some categories on our site where we partner with trusted companies to provide us with price comparison information. We do this for utilities and insurance, for example. Today, we strive to work with the most consumer friendly partners in the UK market.
Beyond that, our intention is to have all our partners commit to provide their listing information on PriceRunner.co.uk in accordance with our unique pledge within 12 months time.
We will never rest in our quest to bring you The Price Comparison Truth
At PriceRunner, we are determined to save consumers money by giving the whole truth. That means not only providing the lowest prices we can find, but consumer reviews, detailed buying guides, the PriceRunner Forum (where our users can discuss the latest deals and retailers) and PriceRunner Mobile - all the power of PriceRunner on the go.
That is why only PriceRunner can really bring you The Price Comparison Truth.
.........And PriceRunner will also seek the lowest prices online with information from high street stores
PriceRunner employs a team of 'PriceRunners' in the UK to check prices in selected high street stores as a reference to our pricing information. We focus on large and well-known retailers, and the data is collected and presented on PriceRunner on a weekly basis.
Signed: Mattias Berg Mattias Berg UK Managing Director PriceRunner October 2008 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Trusted professions
Profession Percentage of Brits that trust these professionals 1 Doctor/Dentist 69% 2 Teacher 53% 3 Police Officer 52% 4 Lawyer 22% 5 Builder/Plumber 4% 6 Politician 3% 7 Car Sales Representative 2% 8 Estate Agent 2%
Please note that these figures do not total 100 as those surveyed were asked to tick all that apply
Attributes associated with trust
Percentage of Brits that associated these attributes with Attributes trust 1 Good manners 56% 2 Well dressed 27% 3 Nice smile 23% 4 Nice voice 18% 5 Clean shoes 11% 6 Wedding ring 7% 7 Attractive 4% 8 Large eyes 4%
Please note that these figures do not total 100 as those surveyed were asked to tick three attributes that apply
About the impartiality survey:
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,073 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken in 2008. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
About PriceRunner:
www.PriceRunner.co.uk, a division of ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), is the UK's most comprehensive and independent price comparison company. Online prices are updated on a daily basis by a specialist team that develops and manages cutting edge technology which hunts down the cheapest online prices available. PriceRunner is unique in that, unlike other price comparison sites, a dedicated team of PriceRunners also checks prices in high street stores. PriceRunner always lists the cheapest price first and is completely independent in that it lists all retailers, regardless whether they pay or not, to provide consumers with a complete overview of the market.
About ValueClick:
ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK) is a leading global provider of digital marketing solutions, enabling advertisers, agencies and publishers to reach consumers through all major online marketing channels. Through its four main businesses; vcmedia, Commission Junction, Mediaplex and PriceRunner, ValueClick provides a comprehensive portfolio of digital marketing solutions.
For more information, please visit http://.valueclick.co.uk
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, ValueClick's ability to successfully integrate its recently completed Fastclick and Webclients mergers, trends in online advertising spending and estimates of future online performance-based advertising. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are detailed under "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by ValueClick, including: its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 31, 2006 and amendment to its Annual Report on Form 10-K/A filed on April 21, 2006; its current report on Form 8-K filed on February 27, 2006; recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-Q/A, other current reports on Form 8-K; its amended registration statement on Form S-4, filed on September 27, 2005; and its final prospectus on Form 424B3 filed on September 28, 2005. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risk that market demand for online advertising, and performance-based online advertising in particular, will not grow as rapidly as predicted. ValueClick undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
For further information please contact: Dan Gamble T: +44(0)208-846-0761 E: dan.gamble@text100.co.uk Vicky Hayden T: +44(0)208-846-0859 E: vicky.hayden@text100.co.uk
For further information please contact: Dan Gamble, T: +44(0)208-846-0761, E: dan.gamble@text100.co.uk; Vicky Hayden, T: +44(0)208-846-0859, E: vicky.hayden@text100.co.uk
