Fewer People Are Engaging With Differing Political Views

The world is becoming more insular. At least, that is what the latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer concludes. As economic anxiety, geopolitical tension and technological disruption intensify, people are turning inwards and engaging less with those who hold different political views.

In Edelman’s survey of 33,938 respondents across 28 countries, conducted between October 25 and November 26, 2025, seven in ten said that they were hesitant or unwilling to trust someone who is different from themselves. This includes someone who lives by different core values, believes different facts and trusts different sources, wants to address societal problems differently or has a different culture, background or lifestyle to their own. Researchers warn that this retreat from diverse perspectives could hamper both economic and societal progress.

This growing mistrust is mirrored in people’s media habits. Compared with a year ago, fewer adults today are regularly exposed to political views that differ from their own. Only around four in ten (39 percent) adults said they consulted sources of information with a political leaning different from their own at least weekly. In 20 of the 28 countries, this share declined significantly year on year, with an average drop of six percentage points across those countries.

South Korea experienced the largest decline, with a 15 percentage-point decrease, followed by Spain at -14 percentage points. Only four countries recorded majorities of adults who said they regularly consumed politically different sources, all of which saw year-on-year increases: India (64 percent, + 1 p.p.), Nigeria (62 percent, +6 p.p.), China (59 percent, +1 p.p.) and the United Arab Emirates (56 percent, +7 p.p.). At the other end of the spectrum, France and Canada had some of the lowest shares of adults engaging with differing political sources, with both countries also registering declines compared with 2025 (France at -6 p.p., Canada at -10 p.p.).