Edelman: 2020 Trust Barometer

Edelman released the "2020 Trust Barometer", a global survey of 34,000 adults in 28 markets around the world, showing that although trust in the technology industry has dropped by 4% year-on-year, it is still the most trusted industry, with three-quarters of respondents (75%) now trusting the industry. Just one year ago, the technology industry experienced the highest public trust in 8 years (78%), and trust has since declined.

Entertainment was another industry to see a 4% drop in trust, with 65% trusting the industry in 2020, down from 69% in 2019. While trust in consumer packaged goods fell 3% (63% in 2020, 66% in 2019), trust in retail companies to do the right thing took little hit (70% in 2019, 69% in 2020). Public trust in financial services has risen 12% over the past eight years.

Search engines and traditional media win the most trust

Traditional media experienced a surge in trust in 2018 (63%) and grew again in 2019 (65%), on par with search engines. But this year, public trust in both media has fallen to 61%.

Trust in social media as a general source of news and information also declined, falling to 40% from 43% in 2019. Self-media experienced a similar decline, with trust falling to 46% from 49% in 2019.

Other highlights

• More than 70% of global respondents (72%) agree that companies should stop advertising on any media platform that fails to stop the spread of fake news and disinformation. About 64% of U.S. respondents agree with this approach.
• The public is more likely to view permanent employees (54%) as very trustworthy than CEOs (47%) or financial industry analysts (47%).
• Trust in family-owned businesses (67%) and private businesses (60%) is higher than in public (58%) or state-owned businesses (52%).
• 44% of respondents globally trust purpose-driven businesses.

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