As Edelman’s research institute and learning laboratory for trust, we publish data-driven insights around trust that inform leadership, strategy, policy and sustained action across institutions.

Publication 2023

Feature

How Companies should weigh in on a Controversy

This article, published in Harvard Business Review and co-authored by Edelman Trust Institute Head of Research David Bersoff, gives guidance to business leaders as they navigate contentious societal issues amid widespread social and political polarization.

2024 Edelman Trust Barometer

Research

The latest Trust Barometer Research

Newsletters

The Edelman Trust Institute’s newsletter, The Trust Report, provides information, context, and applications for trust in business and society.

The Trust Report: Gen Z Weighs in on the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer

February 6, 2024

Edelman Gen Z employees who work with clients across different sectors to reflect on findings from the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer.

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Insights & News

Expert views on the political, social and economic factors influencing trust in society

Trust at Work Across U.S. Divides

2023 Special Analysis

This analysis, produced in collaboration with Harvard Business School’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society, focuses on the unique role that employers hold in today’s highly polarized society.

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Featured Content

RESEARCH

The Trust-Building Principles of 2023

An analysis of the reports we published this year reveals some clear themes for how institutions and their leaders can make it more likely they will earn trust.

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INFOGRAPHIC

Key CEO Traits        
 

Explore the characteristics of a trusted CEO, based on data from a 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Analysis.         
 

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REPORT

Edelman Trust Institute: Publication 2023

The world is attempting to navigate a period of rapid and often turbulent change at a time when the public’s trust in leaders and societal institutions is unusually low.

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KEY FINDINGS

U.S. businesses speaking out in support of LGBTQ+ people and issues

Presented in partnership with GLAAD, these key findings highlight the importance of U.S. businesses speaking out in support of LGBTQ+ people and issues.             
 

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The TrustMakers

Podcast

Join The TrustMakers, where listeners connect with global experts to learn what it takes to build trust in today’s society.

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What is the Edelman Trust Institute?

Our Mission

Trust has become the foundational currency of stakeholder capitalism—yet the path for trust-building is changing faster than most leaders are able to adapt. Society has shifted expectations of what it takes to earn and restore trust.

Edelman began our investment in trust in 2000 with the launch of the Edelman Trust Barometer, because we believed trust and its impact on the world deserved to be studied and understood. The Trust Institute builds on 20+ years of global research across millions of stakeholders to drive enhanced, data-informed decision- making around the new imperative of trust.

Our mission is to provide leaders across institutions with a deeper understanding of the state of trust, and to equip those leaders with actionable insight about the changing dynamics of trust- building and erosion.

What we do

The Edelman Trust Institute partners with academic institutions, companies, foundations and other institutions to conduct research and apply advanced analytics to expand trust knowledge and extract new understanding. We explore the state of trust in institutions and brands to understand and document how social, political, and cultural changes are shaping trust and the expectation for institutions and leaders to act.

The Trust Barometer surveys more than 34,000 people in 28 countries annually. As of 2021, Edelman studies on trust have surveyed over 2 million respondents and gathered 23 million data points, researched and analyzed 87,000 employee reviews and more than 150 peer-reviewed academic articles, and conducted in-depth interviews with C-level business leaders around the world. Our cross-cultural insights on trust are widely cited in media outlets such as The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Fortune, and Forbes.

History

Edelman began its investment in trust because we believed trust and its impact on the world deserved to be studied and understood.

We conceived the Edelman Trust Barometer in 2000 as a direct response to the “Battle in Seattle,” when non-governmental organizations stormed the World Trade Organization to protest globalization as an unfair distribution of wealth. Edelman partnered with business and academic experts across disciplines to articulate the construct of trust and fielded a study polling opinion shapers in five countries on their trust in NGOs relative to media, government and business. In the two decades since, Edelman has studied the dynamic shifts in trust across institutions, governments, cultures, and geographies globally, substantiating that trust is essential to future success on a societal and on a company level.

Today, society is at an inflection point. Trust is now the foundational currency of stakeholder capitalism and increasingly a defining business metric for companies and brands. The Trust Institute’s research insights continue to drive the global conversation around our deeper understanding of trust and its linkage to success.

Currently, the Trust Institute is focused on examining the new pressures and expectations on business in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of business as the most trusted institution today.

Leadership

Our People

Edelman Trust Institute (ETI) is led by a team of senior Edelman leaders. Justin Blake, Edelman’s Global Executive Positioning Practice Chair, serves as Executive Director. Tonia E. Ries serves as Executive Director, Edelman Trust Barometer and oversees all Trust Barometer research studies. David Bersoff, ETI’s Head of Research, is the lead researcher on all of Edelman's trust-oriented thought leadership, including the Edelman Trust Barometer, and leads the Institute's research-based collaborations. In addition, ETI is guided by a core group of advisors that form our Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is comprised of experts from academia, business, policy, media and the NGO sector to shape ETI’s research, programming and editorial agenda. Project teams are led by ETI research directors and senior analysts, and include consultants from Edelman’s global network of industry, sector and strategic communications experts.   
 

 

Our Advisory Board

This diverse group of professors, authors and former journalists shape the Trust Institute’s research, programming and partnership agenda and participate in convenings with leaders across institutions. Advisory Board members are authorities on the intersection of business, media, policy and civil society.

 

Pierre Chandon

The L’Oréal Chaired Professor of Marketing—Innovation and Creativity at INSEAD and director of the INSEAD-Sorbonne University Behavioural Lab
 
 

Sandra Sucher

Professor at Harvard Business School
 
 

Stephanie Creary

Organizational Scholar and Assistant Professor of Management, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
 
 

Rik Kirkland

Former editor FORTUNE and partner/director of publishing, McKinsey
 
 

Hong Fan

Tsinghua University professor of Journalism and Communications and director of the National Image Research Center
 

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