A global perspective: all is not lost

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” A quote attributed to both Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes, and applicable to many things, but not in the case of the direction of trust in global industries.  

Because, as seen in this report’s introduction, it is the view of the Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Monitor that the facts haven’t changed, so neither should our minds, and that trust continues to be on the rise for almost all sectors and institutions measured this year – a strong assertion given claims that trust is in crisis.  

Broken down, there is regional consistency in rankings when it comes to our global data, with pharmaceuticals and food & drink at the top as the most trustworthy sectors, the government and social media companies at the bottom.  

There is one sector that is noteworthy for its variation however; tech. Unlike other sectors measured, the trustworthiness of technology companies globally has declined four percentage points since 2019. This has resulted in moving from a twelve-point lead as the most trustworthy sector, to losing its position at the top entirely. While other sectors and institutions have shown a continued growth in trustworthiness, the tech sector sees the opposite.  

What is driving trust in sectors and institutions?

Before diving into the detail, it’s useful to understand what’s important for the public when deciding whether an organisation is trustworthy. The leading themes and corporate behaviours remain the same as they have done for previous years, at both a global and regional level.

Reliability, transparency, and behaving responsibly; stick to these and a sector or institution gives itself a good foundation to be trustworthy. The leading themes and corporate behaviours remain the same as they have done for previous years.

What do these behaviours mean for businesses and organisations though?

Reliability is straight-forward and clear; products and services that are of good quality; and stated actions and promises are met.

Behaving responsibly, like transparency, can be seen in different ways for different sectors, but is again bound by a common thread - how it interacts with society at large, and how it operates from a values-based perpective.

Companies should know this, and from wider Ipsos research, we can highlight the awareness organisations have of the risk to business if the values the public hold as important are not reflected.

Trust in the pharmaceutical sector

In the wake of COVID-19, trust in the pharmaceutical sector continues to improve, and it is now globally the most trusted of the sectors and institutions we measured. As the chart below shows, recently the sector has seen quick growth in perceptions of ‘it is good at what it does’ – a testament to the output of the vaccination programmes, while ‘it shares my values’ also sees strong, positive gains.

Trust in technology companies

Compared to other industries, it’s a well-performing sector, but as previously mentioned it is the only sector that has not seen continued growth in trustworthiness. But it’s a complicated and nuanced picture. When we look at the drivers of trust, the technology sector’s performance on these is in fact up.

This decline in trustworthiness could suggest that the tech sector had previously been riding a wave of innovation and dynamism. What we are seeing now is the impact of becoming part of the ‘establishment’.

The flattery and celebrity culture surrounding companies often associated with Silicon Valley is dissipating.

Trust of technology companies in APAC region

An interesting point to note is that at a regional level trustworthiness in technology companies is not decreasing everywhere. Whilst in EMEA and the Americas the results show a similar drop in the trustworthiness of the sector, in the Asia-Pacific region, the results show the opposite.

There is, however, an opportunity for the tech sector to build back some of its lost trust. Recent Ipsos data shows that globally, 68% of the public would support government subsidies to make environmentally friendly technologies cheaper, which would reduce the cost of innovation and allow a wider audience to see what the tech sector is offering.

Find out more insights and our thoughts by downloading the full report.