It’s a matter of trust

We’re living through a crisis of trust - toward institutions, politicians, the media, the corporate world, and even other people, across the board. At least that’s what we’re led to believe by the prevailing narrative proliferated via information channels and accepted by people everywhere. But if we take a closer look at the opinion polls, the reality is much more nuanced than that. It’s true that in most countries trust is undeniably low, but it’s been the same story for decades. In actual fact, in some places there’s actually been a slight rise in the level of trust. So maybe the new take on this old story is something else: the political and economic elite, who find themselves under fire from the ‘sirens of populism’, are losing their sense of security in their role. So they’re paying more attention than ever before to the perceptions of the populace.

To shine a light on the dynamics of trust, in all their complexity, Ipsos Mori published a recent report entitled Trust: the Truth? finding that the perception of unraveling trust in recent years appears to be a global phenomenon. Based on a survey of 17,000 adults in 24 countries conducted in October 2018, the data show that over half of the interviewees say they’ve noticed a drop in the level of trust that their fellow citizens place in their government (59%) and in the press (53%); almost half say the same about trust in major companies (44%).

Yet in Europe in particular, conflicting evidence emerged. In Germany, for instance, the percentage of people who say they trust political parties almost doubled from 2001 to 2018 (from 16% to 31%). Instead in France, the same figure (which was already very low) dropped to rock bottom (from 11% to 6%). In contrast, other levels of trust saw noticeable growth in both countries: trust in the police (+15% in Germany, +21% in France) and in the armed forces (+11% in Germany, +21% in France). What’s more, in most countries, trust in other people tended to remain stable or even increase. (Italy went from 20% in 2002 to 21% in 2016.)

The situation in Europe is different in some respects than what we see the US, where confidence has eroded in all the major institutions, both public (Congress, the federal government, the school system) and private (major companies, banks, TV). People also seem to trust one another less (the figure was 35% in 2000, and 31% in 2018). This is truly a case of trust in crisis, which seemingly ties into the extreme polarization – to the point of actual ‘tribalization’ – that exists in American society today.

Almost everywhere, the lowest level of trust is reserved for governments and politicians. (Only 14% of interviewees in 2018 at a global level expressed ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ of confidence in them.) But public services scored higher (26% saw them as trustworthy), albeit with sizeable differences between countries: trust was lower where corruption was rampant (as is the case in several Latin American countries).

Among companies, scoring at the top in terms of trustworthiness were tech companies (39%), followed by agro-food (25%) and pharmaceuticals (26%, but with a higher number of negative opinions). Viewed in a less positive light were banks (which only 20% of interviewees considered trustworthy), energy companies (18%) and the media (18%).

There are several reasons why people consider an organization trustworthy, ranging from leadership and competency to having the best intentions and behaving responsibly. So for example, banks score high on trust for the first pair of indicators, and low on the second pair, while the reverse is true for public services.

The importance of various trust drivers fluctuates a great deal from country to country too. Italian interviewees cited competency as a key component of trust, and also claimed to hold scientists in particular esteem. (In fact, 67% of Italians consider them trustworthy, compared to 52% in Germany and 40% in Japan).

Trust is a fundamental factor underpinning not only social cohesion and the health of democracy; trust also ensures that economic dynamics function properly. The widespread impression in recent years is that overall, trust is on the decline with regard to politics, institutions, and toward the elite in general, in an environment of growing skepticism as far as competencies. This phenomenon is seen in relation to the rise of populist, anti-system parties. It’s the spirit of our times, the ‘populist zeitgeist’ as defined by the political expert Cas Muddle. But the Ipsos Mori report: Trust: The Truth? offers a more complex and less pessimistic picture. Beyond the common perceptions of individuals that in society trust is deteriorating – perceptions corroborated by the study – it doesn’t seem that there actually is a sharp, general decline in all countries. On the contrary, there are some places where trust in institutions and politics is on the rise. A case in point is Germany and other Norther European countries that bounced back with more resiliency than others from the recent economic crisis. This is a sign of how the relationship between trust and the economy is, in actual fact, bidirectional. So if it’s true that trust is essential for the economy, it’s also true that an economic system generates satisfactory results in terms of growth, widespread wellbeing, and opportunity when it is fueled by trust, which sets in motion a virtuous circle.