A great leveller?
The latest Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Monitor has revealed that the pharmaceutical industry is now the most trusted sector in 2023. Pharma has enjoyed a steady rise in public trust since the pandemic, perhaps unsurprising given its critical role in developing and distributing medicines to combat the global health crisis. We know from our research for industry associations such as the ABPI and IFPMA that widespread recognition of pharma’s innovation during the pandemic has had a lasting positive impact on its public reputation. However, as is often the case with global research, some nuances exist behind the headline, with different demographic or attitudinal subsets of the public holding differing views. One topic that often comes up when exploring trends in opinion is whether generational differences can be used to predict sentiment towards the sector. Our data shows that there is no significant difference between how four different generational cohorts (Baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z) trust the pharmaceutical sector. Across the ages, trustworthiness in pharma has moved in the same, positive direction since 2019.
This story is, in some ways, no different than other industries measured in our Trustworthiness Monitor. Generational outlook towards the Technology and Retail sectors and the Government is similarly analogous to pharma, in 2023. But this might come as a surprise for the pharma industry, given the recent context that has certainly shaped its reputation. Perspectives among the youngest generations (Gen Z and Millennials), for whom the pandemic was a relative introduction to pharmaceuticals and their role in society, might be deemed most responsive to the industry’s prominent demonstration of the impact of medical innovation. Conversely, it might be reasonable to believe that views of the sector among older generations (Gen X and Baby Boomers) could be informed, at least partly, by recall of negative news coverage, pop culture representations, or the long half-life of high-profile scandals. However, our findings underscore that generational difference in opinion, values and perception is not as marked as is often assumed. Comparable generational trust in pharma could be rooted in the fact that the drivers of trust in organisations and institutes, such as pharma, are also similarly appraised and ranked by importance across the four age groups. Trust in the sector is underpinned by the perception that ‘it is good at what it does’ - over half of the global public (52%) associate this with the sector. Strength of leadership is also increasingly associated with the industry (45% agree that the sector is well-led).
Across these key drivers of trust in pharma, there is very little difference, at a global level, in how the generations perceive their importance when judging organisations and institutions. The younger generations are marginally more likely to see pharma’s two key trust drivers (‘it is good at what it does’ and ‘it is well led’) as important, while the older generations prioritise transparency and reliability. But importantly, these nuances are not to a significant extent.
Therefore, the fact that the age groups trust in big pharma (and other industries, businesses, and organisations) are shaped by very similar, fundamental hygiene factors may account for why they are not divided by how much they trust the sector. Beyond what our data reveals about the drivers of global public trust, the reasons why there is little to no generational differences in relation to the pharma industry could simply be inferred from the nature of the past three years. Our 2023 Trustworthiness Monitor report concludes with:
We are all far more similar than we may think, and it is probably time to focus on what unites us than divides us.
Never has this held so true than during a global pandemic, which united families and communities across the world together in a common state of crisis. Everyone- young and old- had a common reliance on the pharmaceutical industry to bring back former lifestyles and normalcy through the discovery and creation of COVID-19 medicines and vaccines. The pandemic’s role as a formidable ‘leveller’ in society may have played some part in levelling out trust in Big Pharma across the generations.
