## richard-edelman-on-trust-during-the-covid19-pandemic

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### The trust imperative: headline message
- Trust is at "rock bottom" and must be urgently restored.
- COVID-19 has reaffirmed lack of trust in institutions by triggering financial market volatility and anger over slow or inadequate government responses.
- Institutions must "outperform expectations" to rebuild public confidence: government demonstrate competence; media act as objective arbiters of fact; business provide necessary products and reliable information; NGOs help develop a vaccine and ensure its fair distribution.

### The nature and measurement of trust
- Trust classification used: Trust = 60–100, neutral = 50–59, distrust = 1–49.
- The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer showed that globally people do not trust any institution to do what is right.
- No single institution is seen as both competent (delivering on promises) and ethical (doing the right thing and working to improve society).

### Shifts in trust dynamics over two decades
- Five seismic events that altered people's trust: concerns about globalization; the Iraq War; the global recession of 2008–09; the rise of China and India; the advent of social networks.
- The second decade (2010s) brought:
  - A trust divide between elites and the general population.
  - Government failure to lead change.
  - A rise in disinformation and fear.
- Trust has moved from a top-down vertical model (trust in authority figures) to a horizontal model (trust based on peers or "a person like me") and to local trust (interaction with those personally close in community, workplace, or family).

### Trust inequality and recent movements
- Trust among the informed public has soared to record highs while most people continue to distrust institutions.
- Chart annotations show gaps over time: "9 point gap", "16 points gap", "16 points gap", "14 points gap" (between informed public and mass population across years shown).

### Institution-level trust snapshot
- "No institution is trusted"—trust is stagnant with no institution climbing into trusted territory.
- Charts indicate NGOs, Business, Government, and Media remain in neutral or distrust ranges (visual values shown in source).

### Who are the most trusted spokespeople about the coronavirus (percent who trust each source to tell the truth)
- Scientists: 83
- My doctor: 82
- My country's health officials: 75
- WHO officials: 72
- Doctors/health experts online: 68
- A person like myself: 63
- NGO representative: 58
- Health care CEOs: 54
- My employer’s CEO: 54
- My coworkers: 53
- My country’s leader: 51
- The news media: 50
- Government official: 48
- Countries most affected: 46
- Journalists: 43

### Public concern about information reliability (percent who agree)
- "It has been difficult for me to find reliable and trustworthy information about the virus and its effects": 45
- "We need to hear more from scientists and less from politicians": 85
- "I worry that there is a lot of fake news and false information being spread about the virus": 74

### Policy implications and recommended actions for institutions
- Work together across institutions to lay groundwork for a new era of trust.
- Government: demonstrate competence in responding to the crisis.
- Media: act as objective arbiters of facts to counter misinformation.
- Business: provide necessary products and reliable information.
- NGOs: help develop a vaccine and ensure its fair distribution.
- Leverage the regained confidence in experts—people want to resume listening to experts.

*Source: Richard Edelman, "Trust Imperative" (based on the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer and the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and the Coronavirus).*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/june/richard-edelman-on-trust-during-the-covid19-pandemic.pdf_