Global public confidence in institutions has evaporated in the last year, taking trust levels back to lows not seen since the financial crisis in 2009, according to research to be presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.
“Unimaginable events” from the Ebola crisis to the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner, Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the forex rate-rigging scandal and the high-profile hacks of Sony Pictures and celebrity photos on Apple’s iCloud have created a “sense that things are out of control,” said Richard Edelman, chief executive of the world’s largest public relations consultancy by revenues, which publishes the annual Edelman Trust Barometer.
The rapid pace of innovation across industries has also left many people feeling unsettled, depressing confidence in both business’s and government’s ability to manage change.