According to an article published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), the world we currently live in is facing a serious trust deficit. Quoting a survey by Edelman, a multi-national communications firm, the article said that this was the first time in 17 years that the survey had found a decline in trust across all institutions.
Edelman uses four institutions to measure the level of public trust, and these are – Government, Media, NGOs, and Businesses. Their survey was done in 28 countries including India, and in almost two-thirds of them, ‘the general population did not trust the four institutions to “do what is right” — the average level of trust in all four institutions combined was below 50%’ – the article in HBR said.
However, what could come as good news for the Government of India, India bucked this trend and the trust in government actually saw a significant gain of 10% over the last year.
According to the Edelman survey, 75% of the general population of India trusted the government while globally this average was just 41%. The survey was carried out between October 13 and November 16 last year.
During 2013 and 2014, when the then UPA government was rocked by allegations of massive scams, this trust in government of India was at 57% and 53% respectively.
The government of India was the second biggest gainer in trust in 2016, if the survey findings are to be believed.
The biggest loser, globally, was the media that was almost as distrusted as the governments world over. Media took the biggest year-on-year hit and is now distrusted by the majority in 82% of the surveyed countries.
“People now view media as part of the elite,” Richard Edelman, president of the firm that did the survey, was quoted by Quartz while explaining this lack of trust in the media.
