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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Fifty-three percent of respondents believe corporations • Among those who practice poor information hy-
need to fill the information void when the news media is giene there is substantially less willingness to get
absent. Communications from ‘my employer’ is the the vaccine within the first year of its availability
most trusted source of information (61%), beating out (59% versus 70% for people with good information
national government (58%), traditional media (57%), hygiene). There is even greater hesitancy about
and social media (39%). the vaccine among Blacks in the U.S., based on
past and present medical inequities and mistreat-
Global pandemic puts trust to the test ment.

The Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 1.9 million • 56% believe the pandemic will accelerate the rate
lives lost and joblessness equivalent to the Great De- at which companies replace human workers with
pression, has accelerated the erosion of trust around AI and robots.
the world. This is evident in the significant drop in trust
in the two largest economies: the U.S. and China. The • 52% of respondents that have a choice to work
U.S. (40%) and Chinese (30%) governments are deep- from home or their workplace choose to work at
ly distrusted by respondents from the 26 other markets home and 58% of those cite the risk of contracting
surveyed. And most notable is the drop in trust among Covid-19 while commuting or being in the office as
their own citizens, with the U.S., already in the bottom the reason.
quartile for trust, experiencing an additional 5-point
drop since its presidential election in November 2020 • Academic experts (59%) and company technical
and China seeing an 18-point drop since May 2020. experts (59%) remain the most credible spokes-
people but experienced an 8-point and 10-point
This moment of reckoning for countries around the drop, respectively. The largest drop was among
world demonstrated most pointedly in government’s regular employees (down 14 points to 40 percent)
institutional trust over the course of the last year. Gov- and a person like yourself (down 7 points to 53%).
ernment briefly seized the high ground, emerging as
the most trusted institution in May 2020, when people While the world seems to be clouded by mistrust and
entrusted it with leading the fight against Covid-19 and misinformation, there is a glimmer of hope in business.
restoring economic health. But government failed the When the government is absent, people clearly expect
test and squandered that trust bubble, having lost the businesses to step in and fill the void and solve today’s
most ground in the last six months (down 8 points glob- challenges. That’s why businesses need to address
ally). guarding information quality, ensuring that reliable
trustworthy information goes out to their employees,
Other key findings from the 2021 Edelman Trust Ba- and, by extension, the community. In fact, more than
rometer include: half of respondents (53%) believe that when the news
media is absent, corporations have a responsibility to
• Only one in four respondents practice good infor- fill the information void. Societal leaders must lead with
mation hygiene, news engagement, avoid echo facts and act with empathy. They must have the cour-
chambers, verify information, and do not amplify age to provide straight talk, but also empathize with
unvetted information
and address people's fears. So, provide trustworthy
content that is truthful, unbiased and reliable to serve
society. ◊ By MediaBUZZ

10 March 2021: Data Privacy & Ethics in Marketing