Overview
- The study, released at Davos, finds about 70% worldwide are unwilling or hesitant to trust people with different values or information sources.
- Insularity is highest in developed markets, including Japan at 90%, Germany at 81%, the UK at 76%, and the U.S. at 70%.
- Edelman attributes the shift to economic anxiety, a collapse in optimism for the next generation (32%), eroding institutional trust, and an information crisis with 65% fearing foreign disinformation.
- Trust is concentrating in close networks, with 78% of employees trusting their employer, 73% expecting CEOs to lead efforts to bridge divides, and 66% expressing trust in their own CEO.
- Developed economies sit at the bottom of the Trust Index for a second year, and business is now rated more ethical than NGOs, with rising nationalism favoring domestic firms over multinationals.