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.

ETB23 - Feature

Feature

Special Report - Trust at Work

The meaning of work has shifted, and employees across generational divides are demanding a reset. While trust in “my employer” is higher than any of the four main institutions, employees are expecting more and their influence in the workplace is rising.

2023 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 High Stakes for Trusting News

August 16, 2023

To earn trust, journalists must first understand what gets in the way of trust. They need to root themselves in humility and be curious about who feels seen by journalism and who feels neglected or misrepresented.

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New Data on the Impact of Sustainability Communications & Gen Z on Brands

July 19, 2023

New research from NYU and Edelman shows that brands should leverage relevant sustainability messaging to make sustainability-marketed products more universal. Plus, the Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Collapse of the Purchase Funnel found that Gen Z influences how other generations shop.

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The Power of Trust's Future-Facing Nature

June 16, 2023

Because of its future-oriented nature and the powerful combination of both emotional and rational considerations, trust allows businesses to withstand risk, exhibit resilience during crises, and unlock their full potential across all stakeholder audiences.

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Everyday Citizens' Role in Building Trust

May 4, 2023

Welcome to the first edition of The Trust Report. Jane Wales of the Aspen Institute reflects on how volunteering time or treasure engenders a sense of connectedness, which can lead to more trust within society.

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Insights & News

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

Publication

Restoring Trust in a Fractured World

The Edelman Trust Institute’s latest publication, “Restoring Trust in a Fractured World,” gives insights on how we can build trust — in institutions and in one another — to minimize polarization and repair our social fabric.

SEE PUBLICATION

 

Featured Content

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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RESEARCH

2023 Special Analysis: Trust and the CEO

This data explores the state of trust and expectations for CEOs. This includes new data about characteristics that would be more likely to make respondents trust a CEO.

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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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RESEARCH

2022 Special Analysis: The Changing Role of the Corporation in Society

This analysis, developed in collaboration with Harvard Business School’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society, examines people's expectations for business and its leaders.

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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 Ries serves as Executive Director of Intellectual Property for the Edelman Trust Institute 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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