Nine in 10 US adults 18-34 trust advertising at least sometimes, the highest trust level of any age group, according to results of a new Adweek Media/Harris Poll.

Youngest Adults Most Trusting

While fully nine in ten young adults aged 18-34 say they trust that advertising is honest in its claims at least sometimes (90%), fewer older adults agree: 86% of those 35-44 say this, as do 84% of those 45-54, and 81% of those 55 years and older.

Conversely, almost one in five adults 55 and older say that they never trust that advertising is honest (18%), compared to less than one in ten 18-34 year olds who say the same (8%).

1 in 5 Trust Advertising is Honest All or Most of Time

Overall, only one in five American adults say they trust that advertising is honest in its claims all or most of the time (19%). Rather, a majority say they trust that advertising is sometimes honest in its claims (65%) and just more than one in ten say that they never trust that advertising is honest in its claims (13%).

Adults 18-34 are tied for or have the highest percentage saying advertising is honest all of the time (1%) and most of the time (23%). This age group also has the lowest rate of responding advertising is never honest (10%).

Less than 1% of adults 55 and older say advertising is honest all of the time, the lowest response rate of any age group (the others all tied with 1%). Adults 45-54 have the lowest rate of saying advertising is honest most of the time, but the highest rate of saying it is honest sometimes (69%).

Adults 55 and older have a substantially higher rate of saying advertising is never honest (18%) than any other age group.