Edelman 2023 Trust Barometer

[activeStick]

Really enjoy these worldwide surveys...

Can download for yourself here: https://www.edelman.com/trust/2023/trust-barometer

https://twitter.com/user/status/1640699236256710656

Random findings from my perusal...

- trust in governments is declining in most places
- people seem to trust business leaders much more than heads of government
- scientists are the most trusted in society
- the US are among the 6 countries most polarized (duh!)
- highest levels of citizens' trust in their country's government, media and businesses: China, Indonesia, UAE, India, Saudi Arabia
- lowest 5: South Korea, Japan, Argentina, UK, Spain (US is 8th lowest, Canada is ranked as neutral - so Canadian!)
- the WHO are the most trusted multinational organization internationally, which is good to see with all of the fake news during covid

Have a look, there's tons of neat stuff! Sadly, most of the Canadian stuff landed right in the middle which doesn't really spark much discussion.

[GGG]

Some pretty neat stuff in there that I will have to read deeper if I have some time.

I find the trust in business interesting and want to read more over the type of questions being asked. Is it because we expect businesses to behave in self interested manner and therefore relative to expectations they become trustworthy?

The other interesting thing is that Trust in institutions is not necessarily a good thing in terms of rights and freedoms. So this isn’t a trust in media and government good and distrust bad. Which makes Canadas neutral probably an okay place to end up. The polarization and distrust is probably a bad sign in general

In an optimal society you’d probably want some polarizations and some distrust of institutions but not too much.

[Northendzone]

I wonder if it would be possible for any government of Canada or the US to unite it’s citizens to a point where say 70% are pulling in the same direction or if those days are over and people are now more polarized than ever

[activeStick]

Canada yes I think so! The US is done though.

[TheIronMaiden]

people seem to trust business leaders much more than heads of government

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by activeStick

- highest levels of citizens' trust in their country's government, media and businesses: China, Indonesia, UAE, India, Saudi Arabia
- lowest 5: South Korea, Japan, Argentina, UK, Spain (US is 8th lowest, Canada is ranked as neutral - so Canadian!)

So, being a theocratic authoritarian reflects well on the people. Plato would be stoked with this result.

[PeteMoss]

Its funny that people lack trust in the media but I suspect the reason that government is less trusted than business is because the media reports much more on government corruption than business corruption.

If people knew what corporations did on a daily basis (even ethical and legal things) - people would hate them.

[Matata]

People trust science, but then use govt and media to source 100% of their science. If people actually wanted to be true to the scientific method, they would be hostile and untrusting of every bit of science that comes their way. Instead, the public at large would rather crown "scientists" as the new high priests and accept their decrees. I get it, science is hard and you basically have to dedicate most of your life to it to have any degree of proficiency or intuitive understanding about it, and even then you can only claim expertise in a handful of subjects.

"Trust the science" is literally the most unscientific statement you could ever possibly make, and it always comes from govt and media. "Trust nothing, aggregate as many possible sources and never assume you're correct" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Matata

People trust science, but then use govt and media to source 100% of their science. If people actually wanted to be true to the scientific method, they would be hostile and untrusting of every bit of science that comes their way. Instead, the public at large would rather crown "scientists" as the new high priests and accept their decrees. I get it, science is hard and you basically have to dedicate most of your life to it to have any degree of proficiency or intuitive understanding about it, and even then you can only claim expertise in a handful of subjects.

"Trust the science" is literally the most unscientific statement you could ever possibly make, and it always comes from govt and media. "Trust nothing, aggregate as many possible sources and never assume you're correct" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.

The problem is that most people are not equipped to handle that on any single subject, let alone all of science. I mean, you are aware of these things, yet also clearly fail spectacularly in your ability to do it. So failing everyone being an expert in every subject, you have no choice but to defer to experts and "trust the scientific method". If you can't do that(which is what misinformation peddlers are pushing us to embrace as a new mantra) then how to you expect the average moron who can't navigate a Tim Hortons drive thru to understand the nuances of biological processes, or how pollution impacts us, or any number of extremely complicated topics that researchers dedicate their lives to understanding?

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Matata

People trust science, but then use govt and media to source 100% of their science. If people actually wanted to be true to the scientific method, they would be hostile and untrusting of every bit of science that comes their way. Instead, the public at large would rather crown "scientists" as the new high priests and accept their decrees. I get it, science is hard and you basically have to dedicate most of your life to it to have any degree of proficiency or intuitive understanding about it, and even then you can only claim expertise in a handful of subjects.

"Trust the science" is literally the most unscientific statement you could ever possibly make, and it always comes from govt and media. "Trust nothing, aggregate as many possible sources and never assume you're correct" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.

In general:
If the science has a economic potential it is funded by private investment
If it has public benefit it is funded with public money

The difference between these two is that public grants only require that you publish your results, and spend the money according to the guidelines, there is 0 pressure to have any particular outcome.

Private investment however creates a massive amount of pressure to reproduce a desired outcome. Not to say that the science is worse, but that there is incentive to fudge a little

This is not to say that Government grants in Canada do not have their own bias. This bias is more a kin to choosing which pot to dump funds into than prescribing in any way what the outcomes from that pot will be.

TLDR/ Science isn't free, it is very expensive, Someone is always going to pay for it, the science is slightly (SLIGHTLY) more reliable when it's funding is not for profit. This is obviously a gross over simplification.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

So, being a theocratic authoritarian reflects well on the people. Plato would be stoked with this result.

Yes - I would be concerned that places where people can't express dissatisfaction with the government as readily as other places would taint the results. Perhaps they adjust for it in this poll but who knows.

Also its kind of like being a GM of a rebuilding team - you are super popular as you bring the terrible team up to contender status - but once people get used to that - they turn on you if you don't keep improving. China and India at least have seen big improvements in quality of life in the last bit. Outside of Argentina - those countries have all been 1st world for a long time.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Matata

People trust science, but then use govt and media to source 100% of their science. If people actually wanted to be true to the scientific method, they would be hostile and untrusting of every bit of science that comes their way. Instead, the public at large would rather crown "scientists" as the new high priests and accept their decrees. I get it, science is hard and you basically have to dedicate most of your life to it to have any degree of proficiency or intuitive understanding about it, and even then you can only claim expertise in a handful of subjects.

"Trust the science" is literally the most unscientific statement you could ever possibly make, and it always comes from govt and media. "Trust nothing, aggregate as many possible sources and never assume you're correct" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.

This is all correct and that is pretty much what happens. If you look at Covid - We went from no masks, to throw any piece of cloth on your face to get a N-90 mask in the course of a year or whatever. Or everyone stay home and don't leave your house, to bubbles, to vaccine passes to moving off of them.

The problem is people like you tend to think the steps along that process is evil because you found some rando scientist who tells you what you want to hear and ignore the 99% of other people as government/company shills.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by GGG

I find the trust in business interesting and want to read more over the type of questions being asked. Is it because we expect businesses to behave in self interested manner and therefore relative to expectations they become trustworthy?

That appears to be a big part of it. It looks like one of the questions they use in building their "trust" profile is if the institution does what they do well.

It's easy to say Coca-Cola does what it does well because what it does is sell massive amounts of carbonated sugar water and it's been doing that for well over a century. It's a lot harder to say the government is doing what it does well because the government does so much more and some of the things it does aren't necessarily going to be popular, like taxation.

They're not terribly transparent with their methodology. Also, keep in mind, this is a report from a PR company that sells its services to some of the worst companies trying to clean up their public perception. So, it's in their best interest to say people "trust" businesses more than they "trust" government.

Originally Posted by Monahammer

So, being a theocratic authoritarian reflects well on the people. Plato would be stoked with this result.

It certainly impacts what people are willing to say about their government to complete strangers who ask them about the government. It's a good reason to take these sorts of reports with a grain of salt.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by getbak

It certainly impacts what people are willing to say about their government to complete strangers who ask them about the government. It's a good reason to take these sorts of reports with a grain of salt.

Probably halfway between this and what PM was saying. Lack of transparency also goes a long way into it. Finally, who actually reports on what the government does... in a couple of those instances the government also controls the media of course, so the story it gets to tell to the people is whatever will make it look best.