We trust the internet more than we do government. That seems to be what this survey from The Guardian is telling us.  (Yes it is only one survey – so I understand).

The image above represent part of the answer to the question “Which of the following institutions do you trust?” – blue means not all all, yellow a little, red a lot.  It tells us far more people trust the internet a little than they do all of our major layers of government (and the press).

What might be going on here?:

1. Perhaps people are expressing trust for the relationships they make on the internet? 89% of people responded to another part of the survey by saying they trust their friends (only 73% said the same of spouse/partner!).
2. Are we more likely to trust things we find on the net a little because we have choice there?  We can go to other bits of the net to find a better version of what we need.  We can’t do that with government.
3. As a development of the above, we are in control on the net – we navigate the journey. How true is that of government?
4. When government lets us down it tends to do it in a more meaningful way than a web page which doesn’t load fast enough or spouts garbage. With government much more closely involved in important things in out life we’re more likely to feel strongly about it.
5. It’s no surprise few people trust the internet a lot – the internet is not an institution. In fact asking people to compare the internet with the EU is a bit daft.

Of course it could just be wrong?