Distrust in Leaders Ticks up Again

Edelman has once more released its annual Trust Barometer, capturing a snapshot of how people around the world feel about today’s leaders.

The findings are hardly positive, with survey data revealing that an increasing proportion of respondents across the 28 polled countries worry that government and business leaders as well as journalists and reporters are purposely misleading people by saying things they know are false or are gross exaggerations. Around seven in ten people believe this to be the case for each of the groups of leaders, with distrust against journalists and reporters most widespread, albeit marginally. As the following chart shows, the share of people who worry about this has increased significantly since the survey was asked in 2021 (up 11-12 percentage points in each case).

Respondents in the lower income quartile reported feeling greater levels of distrust of these leaders than those in the top quartile. Where 63 percent of high income respondents said they had trust in business, government, media and NGOs, the figure was just 48 percent among low income respondents.

Scientists and teachers were the favored voices when respondents were asked which groups of people they thought could be trusted to do what is right, at 77 and 75 percent, respectively. More than 32,000 people were polled across 28 countries in each survey wave.