Data Dive: trust in dangerous times

We’re starting a new year, but still grappling with old problems.

The COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine are dragging on, climate change is walloping the world and the cost-of-living crisis is still crushing consumers.

Executives and politicians from around the globe are currently trying to come up with solutions to these serious issues and more at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The WEF kicked off 2023’s meeting, with the theme of cooperation in a fragmented world, by warning that our fractured world could be on the brink of a “polycrisis.”

And while the world can indeed feel very broken and in constant crisis, Ipsos’ polling via our Global Advisor online platform shows there’s glimmers of light amid all the darkness.

1. On the mend
   The news these days is often quite grim, yet people don’t think systems are quite as broken as they did just over a year into the pandemic. Back in the spring of 2021 there was an overwhelming negativity in the air about pretty much everything, including the economy and politics.  Yet by the fall of 2022 there was, if not overwhelming positivity, then at least markedly less negativity.

    

2. On the rise
   Even with the seemingly endless stream of negative headlines about social media companies, the percentage of people, on average globally, who said they trusted these organizations rose six percentage points in 2022. And after years of conspiracy theories about vaccines (often on social media…), the percentage who trust the pharmaceutical sector also rose ever so slightly, as did trust in the government, banking and oil/gas sectors.

    

3. On the up and up?
   The fights about masks, social distancing, vaccines, and, well, pretty much anything and everything both online and IRL the past few years doesn’t seem to have inspired strong trust in others. Given the divisive era we’re living through it’s perhaps little surprise only 30%, on average globally, said most people can be trusted. Though, perhaps, it’s a bit more surprising (and hopeful), that our polling finds the older people are the more trusting they are.