09/05/2026
According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, global trust is collapsing into “insularity.” 7 out of 10 people would choose and trust someone who already thinks like them, shares and lives by the same values and principles. Yet, among these people, the grievance is higher than the 30% that’s open to consider trusting who’s not alike. Two things caught my attention in particular while reading the report:
1. Individuals, brands and businesses have the lead. We might have gotten worse when it comes to trusting each other, yet we haven’t stopped yearning for it. We just can’t; it’s embedded in our nature and in our primal instinct of bonding. Governments, media and the institutions which once represented the “ones to trust” for they acted for the greater good, have definitely fallen behind. That role is now being taken by businesses, CEOs, brands and individuals who are now asked to stand for something that’s more than lucrative. That means that if you have a business or plan to start one, you can now become much more than financially successful: you can be a beacon for hope and trust.
2. Insularity doesn’t make us happier. Severing ties from what’s different, let alone actively engaging to hurt and damage the counterpart(s), literally drains and poisons us from within. We definitely need more functional and improved integration platforms and proxies. Spaces, places, areas where humans can acknowledge their different belief systems, backgrounds and values, yet still respect each other. Integration, whenever successful, is the opposite of flattening or invading: it’s the peaceful understanding that, thank God, we shall never be all the same and that as long as one part isn’t trying to prevaricate on the other and all parties are willing to make a slight effort to listen and get to know a little of the other culture, there’s plenty of room for diversity.
Reading this report gave me a lot of hope and enthusiasm about brokering trust itself, something I realize I’ve chosen a long time ago. It’s not something one does because it’s easy: you do it because you choose it, despite all the reasons that tell you not to.