Confirmed: Americans have trust issues

Reader's Digest is out this week with their annual list of the "100 Most Trusted People in America," and the results are interesting (to say the least).

After polling more than 1,000 people, researchers found that the "most trusted" person in America is...

Tom Hanks?

In fact, four of the top five "most trusted" people in America are actors -- people who make money portraying other people.  They are, in order: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.  The fifth spot went to author and poet Maya Angelou.

Rounding out the top 10 are film director Steven Spielberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, Bill's wife Melinda Gates and actress Julia Roberts.  

Fortunately, Reader's Digest admits that they removed last year's top answers from this year's poll -- “your own doctor” (77%), “your own spiritual adviser” (71%), and “your own child’s current teacher” (66%) -- in order to gauge trust in public figures. 

Some other surprising findings in their research:

• We trust TV judges more than Supreme Court justices;
• We really trust doctors (especially if they're on TV); and
• We trust funny pundits more than the straight ones.