Skeptical espousers have lost faith in big business and the items they sell. They feel that the quality and robustness of products has deteriorated over the years and they feel that manufacturers and their advertising agencies make it even worse with inflated claims that rarely match with actual experiences.

This is driven by a basic mistrust of most commercial companies and social organizations. Feeling disappointed and disillusioned is common, because products and people rarely meet their high expectations. They value trustworthy agencies that help them to identify false claims and fake news. As well as personal recommendations from friends and family, services like Trip Advisor and Amazon's feedback pages written by 'real people' are valued, because, generally speaking, the information is less tainted by ulterior motives.

Mistrust of authority, dominant institutions, presents them with conflicting drives when they express the desire to have a strong secure protection of their country - which is a function of governmental organizations that are inherently based on being authoritative and dominant in a moral sense. For the most part they will put up with this as long as order is maintained - but they are skeptical of any result, good or bad.

They believe that society has lost its way due to a lack of discipline and diluted consequences when individuals break the law. Driven by a need for safety and security, they believe that society's standards have dropped and the respect for rules has been compromised. Ineffective deterrents and poor implementation of the law are seen to have made the world a more dangerous place to live.

Cutting across all types of households, older people are more likely to espouse this attribute, dreaming of an age gone by. Believing that society has lost its way, they dream of a better world, a place where they can be certain that life will have 'a happy ending'. Some espousers have become true cynics when they realise that this can't happen. Some other espousers prefer to immerse themselves in alternative fantasies. Things like costume drama and historical romances provide more than an escape from reality and more an opportunity to live through an alternative reality where they identify with the hero/heroine.

Rather than grabbing life and making it work for them, they are more inclined to coast along and find their place in life. They tend to be 'grumbling followers'. They believe that a more equitable sharing of social resources would be a good thing - as it would likely weaken some of the overpowering forces they perceive as arrayed against them and people like them. However, when others, e.g. politicians and pressure groups, attempt to speak to these issues, supporting positions that mirror the Skeptical espouser's desires, they are likely to hear a chorus of whinges and moans that 'it doesn't go far enough', or as the old TV sit-com character Victor Meldrew used to exclaim in exasperation, 'I don't believe it!'