A mind boggling Venn diagram shows that the legal profession and the oldest profession are despised equally
It’s difficult to know who in this story should get more sympathy — prostitutes or lawyers.
A US Ivy League research student has discovered that sex workers and lawyers are arguably the two most reviled professionals on the planet.
Now lawyers we can potentially understand, but ladies and gentlemen of the night …? That seems a bit harsh.
However, according to a study by the US National Academy of Sciences, an unidentified Princeton grad student claims that sex-workers are the “most-lowly regarded profession” in the US. But while lawyers are seen as not half bad at their jobs — scoring higher than most professions for competence — they rate just as badly as prostitutes in the human compassion category.
The researchers found the public considers lawyers to be just as “cold” as sex workers, with both professions ranking right at the bottom of the warmth league table.
But the surveyed Americans don’t reserve their vitriol exclusively for lawyers and prostitutes — a range of traditional working-class roles are also reviled. Researchers found dishwashers, dustmen, fast-food staff, cabbies and maids were all viewed with “disgust” by the public.
At the other end of the spectrum come medics and teachers, with health and education professionals being almost deified by the American public. Clearly the Yanks didn’t have the same schooling experience as the Judge…