In business and industry, trust is frequently cited as essential for a positive reputation. Trust is a simple word, yet it implies a long-term dedication to service, discipline, and authenticity. Earning the trust of one’s fellow businesses and the population at large is a common and highly desirable goal that quickly communicates legitimacy to stakeholders.
The Edelman Trust Barometer is an annual global survey through which trust has gained an increasingly higher profile among businesses. Now in its 25th year, Davos’ Edelman Trust Barometer is driving much of the conversation around trust. But while the Barometer is regarded by many as an authority on the topic, too few questions are asked about exactly how the survey constructs the idea of trust itself—and, therefore, what kind of trust it is promoting. The Edelman Trust Barometer aims to illustrate the role communications play in building consumer trust for big businesses, but in order to truly garner anything of value from its findings, companies must first better understand exactly how it measures their success.
Businesses Aspire to a Higher Standard of Trust
The Barometer regularly indicates that modern society is one in which essentially all institutions other than business consistently fail to deliver high levels of trust with regard to the average consumer. On the other hand, business is the most trusted institution, and it is justified to have a stronger leadership role to drive positive change. In 2024, for example, the Barometer report announced that business was the most trusted to introduce innovation; in 2021, it was the only trusted institution following the pandemic outbreak; in 2018, business was expected to lead social change in a world where misinformation was reducing trust in (online) media and government. The implicit message is that people should trust in business, in part because no other institution can deliver the social cohesion needed.
Falling Under Heavy Scrutiny
However, people’s business experience varies widely, and as many corporate scandals in history attest, it is not always positive. In a context where reality clashes with aspiration, advertising and public relations practitioners and their clients—who buy blindly into the Barometer’s trust narrative—may achieve exactly the opposite of their reputational goals.
They may receive a nasty shock from increasingly knowledgeable and vocal audiences, who point out when businesses are being duplicitous—for example, making promises that they cannot (or will not) keep, abusing workers in their supply chain, or saying they support social causes while lobbying governments to work against societal interests.
These vulnerabilities may undermine trust in business, but they are inescapable in a world where the walled gardens of business operations are more porous than ever before. Thanks to social media and digital technologies, it is possible both for more actors to hold business to account, and for the results of such accounting to be more visible.
The Opportunity for Larger Cooperation
When it highlights opportunities for businesses to partner with other institutions on specific issues (such as innovation in 2024), the Barometer hints at this interdependence. But if it were to go further, it could better outline the ways in which businesses must treat whatever trust they enjoy with care.
Engaging with Criticisms to Triumph Over Shortcomings
In practice, the findings offer businesses numerous opportunities to build on trust by:
- Examining what regulators and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are saying about the risks posed by their sector and thinking about how they might act to minimize those risks.
- Establishing trust by taking audience perspectives as a starting point for dialogue rather than prioritizing their own interests.
While many businesses are chasing trust for clout alone, the true way to cultivate trust is to act in the best interests of those whom the business actually serves.
To this end, prioritizing societal interests over organizational imperatives is essential to forming long-lasting trust with the public, and yet it is something that the Barometer is unable to imply in its current state. Clients might benefit more if they are reminded that business success depends on other institutions’ work to foster trust. Recognizing that work—rather than impeding it—is more in tune with reality and more honest for the stakeholders businesses care about.