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Growing income inequality is killing the dreams of people throughout the world who feel the economic system is rigged against them, according to Edelman's 20th Trust Barometer, which found that 56 percent of respondents believe today's capitalism is doing more harm than good.
Despite the downbeat view of capitalism, 58 percent of respondents rank business as the most trusted institution.
Richard Edelman said businesses have filled the void left by populism and government.
CEOs though, cannot operate with a focus exclusively on shareholder returns.
The Barometer, which was released at the Davos World Economic Forum, found that 92 percent of workers want CEOs to speak out on the issues of the day. Nearly three-in-four (73 percent) of employees want the opportunity to change society and about two-thirds of consumers are "belief-driven buyers."
Edelman sees the need to evolve its model for measuring trust to two gauges: competence and ethical behavior. "It is no longer only a matter of what you do, it's how you do it," said Edelman.
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The Barometer found that business ranks as highest in competence by a 64 percent to 10 percent bulge over government.
In the ethical behavior category, NGOs hold a 31 percent advantage over government and a 25 percent edge over business.
Though government scored low marks in competence and ethical behavior, survey respondents trust it more than business on protecting the environment and closing the income gap.
Media took a beating in the Edelman survey as 57 percent of respondents said the media they use are contaminated with untrustworthy information. More than three-quarters of respondents worry about fake news being used as a weapon.
The Barometer found that the "informed public" (wealthier, more educated and frequent consumers of news), which comprise 17 percent of respondents, are far more trusting that the "mass population."
While AI may have made the basics of generating content easier and more efficient, it has also made it more difficult for a brand to stand out from an ever-growing crowd of voices and platforms, according to a report from Public Relations Global Network and Greenough Communications.
Only 15 percent of the CEOs polled in a new survey from Boathouse think that their CMO merits an “A” for job performance, as opposed to the 53 percent who rank their CMO as “average."
A growing sense of fragmentation when it comes to health issues is leading to greater distrust of both the healthcare industry and the media that reports on it, according to the newly released 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer.
The philanthropy sector appears to be losing its position on the moral high ground, according to the Global Risk Advisory Council’s Reputation Risk Index for Q1 2026.
