If you are a small business owner, take heart. Your public consumers view you favorably, and perhaps more importantly, trust you, and in some cases, even love you.

According to the Public Affairs Council’s 2012 Public Affairs Pulse Survey released just this month, Americans love small business. In fact, almost nine in ten adults (88%) say they have a favorable view of small business, compared with just 67% who feel the same way about major companies.

Small business owners also earn high marks when it comes to honesty and ethics. In fact, more than half of the 1,750 Americans polled say that small business owners have high ethical standards, where major company CEOs came in at a paltry 8%.

Perhaps most notably and reflecting a more than ten-percent jump since 2011, more than two-thirds of consumers say they would prefer to do business with a small local company, even if their prices are a little higher. Only 29% would rather do business with a large national company that offers lower prices.

The survey was designed to illustrate Americans’ views on a range of business-oriented topics in an election year, including overall improvement in attitudes toward business, growing economic optimism, worries about regulation and the role that businesses can and should play in solving national problems, among others. If you’d like to see the full report, click here now!