People’s trust in both government and business continues to wane, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020. And, although trust in capitalism is at all-time low, there’s hope.
Despite there being little trust in the ethics of businesses and brands, survey respondents said that business is a great deal more competent than government or non-government organizations. Edelman Global CEO Richard Edelman said ths shows the potential for business to be the catalyst for change. He said companies need to engage stakeholders over shareholders and anchor strategy in ethics.
There’s room for optimism for the media industry too. Disengagement with the news has slowed significantly and there’s been huge growth in amplifiers–people who share news stories via social media. That’s a boon for our journalist colleagues!
Another interesting finding is that Canadians have little trust in our government. Apparently we think its unethical and incompetent at the same time.
Here’s an excellent interview with Richard Edelman at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He summarizes the study findings and explains the trends observed over the 20 years since the first Trust Barometer survey.
The Trust Barometer is based on a survey of 34,000 respondents in 28 markets, 1,150 respondents per market. Fieldwork was conducted between October 19 and November 18, 2019.
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