LONDON, October 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Politicians are mistrusted by 97% of Brits and the only professions people trust less are car sales representatives and estate agents. We are twice as likely to trust a builder or plumber to give us an honest opinion over our local MP, according to the findings of a major impartiality study released today, by impartial price comparison service, PriceRunner.co.uk.

Ashley Cole is revealed as one of the least trusted celebrities, with 99% of Brits expressing their lack of confidence in the disgraced Chelsea footballer. On the other hand, Cheryl Cole's judging counterpart, brutally frank Simon Cowell is believed to tell the truth by a quarter of Brits.

Troubled singer, Amy Winehouse, was not far behind Cole in the reliability stakes, with only 3% convinced that she tells the truth. Brits are actually more likely to trust high-profile entrepreneurs such as Virgin boss Richard Branson and The Apprentice front-man Sir Alan Sugar than Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative party leader David Cameron.

Who do we trust?

PriceRunner.co.uk's study showed that Doctors are the most trusted professions and it is not just kids who respect their teachers, over half of UK adults named teaching as the most trustworthy profession.

But, it's not just people's professions that shape our perception of trust. Northerners are considered to be the most trustworthy, according to one in five Brits, followed by Southerners and the Scottish, each accounting for 8% of those surveyed. The Irish narrowly beat the Welsh by 2% to be named as the region that instils the most confidence.

Whilst the majority of people surveyed believe that trust crosses age groups, there is some favouritism towards the over 64s, whilst 18-24 year olds represent the age group we have the least faith in. Similarly, six out of ten people surveyed believe that there is no difference in gender when it comes to trust. However, 20% believe that women are more trustworthy compared to only 7% for men. Interestingly, women are less trusting of men than vice versa.

You can depend on...

Famed for calling a spade a spade, you can always rely on a northerner to tell it how it is, especially a good mannered, well turned out, retired lady. Ideally, she'll be an ex teacher or, even better, a former doctor or dentist! And, if that doesn't convince you, her warm smile will!

Watch out for...

A cheeky Irish fella, aged 18-24, working as a car salesman or estate agent. And, don't be fooled by those twinkling Irish eyes and good looks! He could try wearing a wedding ring or cleaning his shoes to improve his image.

Mind your Ps and Qs

The survey revealed that manners really do maketh man...and woman for that matter! Good manners top the list of attributes most likely to be associated with trustworthiness, with 56% of Brits naming this as a quality that would give them confidence. So, after remembering those important little words, "please" and "thank you", being well dressed, cited by over one in four of respondents, and having a nice smile, cited by 23%, are also good indications of trust.

However, the belief that traits such as being attractive or having large eyes are beneficial is negligible. Only a very small percentage of those surveyed believe that these qualities are a true indication of trustworthiness. In fact, 7% of people surveyed are more likely to trust someone wearing a wedding ring, 11% believe that clean shoes make a difference and a fifth respond best to people with a nice voice.

Commenting on the findings of the impartiality study, Mattias Berg, Managing Director of PriceRunner.co.uk, said: "It's clear that we all have a different perception of trust and what to look out for in order to identify the truth. We should therefore be careful about where we gather information and how our opinions are formed. This is particularly true in the online community."

He continued: "Addressing this, we created our pledge for the impartial price comparison truth* to offer our users certainty about the pricing information they get from us. Unlike other price comparison sites, we always ensure that we list the cheapest price first and include pricing information from all retailers, regardless of any advertising arrangements."