 |
Trust in western democracies is on the rise due to their robust response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a special geopolitical report of Edelman’s Trust Barometer released today.
The US and UK showed the largest trust gains (six percent) since January. Germany was up four percent and France advanced two percent in the poll of 14,000 people.
China showed the biggest drop in trust (three percent) among the 14 nations polled. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the only other decliners. They each dipped one percent.
The Barometer found solid trust gains of 31 points for companies that ended operations in Russia due to the invasion.
 |
Those maintaining businesses there risk a trust loss of 38 points. Almost half (47 percent) of respondents have started to buy or stopped buying a brand due to a company’s response to Ukraine.
Almost six in ten (59 percent) of respondents want CEOs to add geopolitical responsibilities to the corporate agenda.
Nearly all respondents (95 percent) say they want companies to take actions in response to an unprovoked invasion.
CEOs also should proactively curtail business activities in countries that commit human rights abuses rather than wait for governments to impose sanctions (64 percent).
CEOs should exit countries that threaten our national security (62 percent).
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.
Even though a majority of consumers are turning to social media as their preferred source of breaking news, issues surrounding trust and the quality of social media content remain a concern for many of them.
