Professional Standards

On Oxblog, I found a poll showing that 59% of Americans believe college professors have high or very high ethical standards, ranking them behind only a bunch of medical fields. I guess the Campus Watch crowd hasn't had as much of an impact as I thought. Actually, though, I'd have trouble with this poll because I'm not sure some professions are really more ethical than others. Auto mechanics, for example, take a bad rap, yet I've had only a couple of bad experiences with them and several very good ones. And I know motivation is not necessarily a good indicator of ethics, but I've known just as many med students who seemed to be doing it for money/status as I have lawyers, and just as many who are trying to find a comfortable career in their natural area of interest. Still, perceptions are interesting.

UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias has more.