" />The 25th edition of Edelman’s global trust barometer has recently been revealed, and honestly, it paints a pretty bleak picture. The short version of a pretty lengthy report is probably best summarised by Vice’s grim headline: Young people have lost all trust in the system and are ready to fight about it – literally.
Edelman’s survey, undertaken with tens and thousands of people across 28 countries, noted the UK population as having one of the lowest trusts scores in its business, government, media and NGOs, with only three countries scoring lower.
The long and short of it is that people are annoyed with institutions, businesses, journalists, government officials and CEOs alike. These grievances are even more protruded within younger generations, with over half of young adults saying that they ‘approve of hostile activism’. Whether this approach is right, wrong, or justified, with Gen Z’s influence only growing and their spending power expected to grow to $12tn by 2030, institutions must find a way to build trust with them again.
Looking at the media specifically, 70% of respondents reported that journalists and reporters ‘purposely mislead people’ – this is up from 59% in 2021. While arguably, the past few years has seen more efforts towards longer form, quality journalism, not to mention a move towards more independent reporting through platforms such as Substack and independent publications such as The Mill here in Manchester, the media in general still has a long way to go to gain back the trust of the public.
With disinformation still rife, it would be easy here to say that journalists need to be reporting the facts, finding the most credible sources, and avoiding clickbait. However, this is just the beginning of the conversation. With a younger generation tending to consume media in a completely different way from what was ‘the norm’ – with a focus on headline, comments and their peers’ views on a story – the media must find a way to engage with this group in a new way that’s more appropriate for this day and age.
From a business point of view, 68% of people think that business leaders purposely mislead people, up from 56% in 2021 – a massive 12 point jump. This should be a stark wake up call for businesses, especially in a shaky economic landscape, with consumer spend still weak. Businesses technically need to work even harder to secure their share of this spend, and it’s the ones that are able to build genuine trust with potential customers that will secure more of this spend. In order to start rebuilding trust with the general public, actions speak louder than words – business leaders need to be walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
As a very minimum, leaders shouldn’t be making sweeping statements without the evidence and proof points to back this up. Whenever a company takes a stance on something, this stance must be able to be backed up. A prominent example of this would be when a business is talking about its sustainability or green agenda. If there aren’t clear, tangible proof points to back it up, business’ shouldn’t bother, as greenwashing continues to be a huge problem.
Add to this, people want to see the human side of businesses and business leaders, and tend to be able to better relate to ones that show empathy and are willing to admit mistakes. Admitting to mistakes is a critical cornerstone of building trust, as highlighted in a 2021 report by PWC, collectively with a) protecting data and cybersecurity, b) proper treatment of employees and c) ethical business practices. While this is an old study, the core principles remain true.
There’s so much more we could unpick here, but ultimately, institutions have a long way to go in building back the trust of the general public. We expect to see the polarisation of views and misinformation continue to be prominent in 2025, meaning building trust will be more important than ever. Those institutions that can back their actions up with words, build genuine connections with their stakeholders, and most of all be honest transparent, will come out on top.
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