Trust

See the entry in Wikipedia [1] for a description of the concept.

Trust in Peers is replacing trust in institutions

From the Edelman Trust Barometer, 2006:

"“The most profound finding of the 2006 Edelman Trust Barometer is that in six of the 11 countries surveyed, the “person like yourself or your peer" is seen as the most credible spokesperson about a company and among the top three spokespeople in every country surveyed. This has advanced steadily over the past three years.

In the US, for example, the “person like yourself or your peer" was only trusted by 22% of respondents as recently as 2003, while in this year’s study, 68% of respondents said they trusted a peer. Contrast that to the CEO, who ranks in the bottom half of credible sources in all countries, at 28% trust in the US, near the level of lawyers and legislators. In China, the “person like yourself or your peer" is trusted by 54% of respondents, compared to the next highest spokesperson, a doctor, at 43%.

Meanwhile, “friends and family" and “colleagues" rank as two of the three most credible sources for information about a company, just behind articles in business magazines. Again, in the US, the “colleagues" number has jumped from 38% in 2003 to 56% in 2006. We facilitated the revolt by employees of Morgan Stanley against top management, soliciting opinions through their futureofms.com website, which then led to stories in traditional media.

Why the change, with increased reliance on those you know? The Edelman Trust Barometer shows clearly the deep trust void facing traditional institutions including business, government, and the media." (http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=50)

On the Decline of Trust

"Full Survey: Trust in Governments, Corporations and Global Institutions Continues to Decline

Since signaling the importance of trust in world affairs, the World Economic Forum has been monitoring public trust levels through a bi-annual global public opinion poll conducted by GlobeScan Incorporated. The latest findings from the poll show that trust in a range of institutions has dropped significantly since January 2004 to levels not seen since the months following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The poll also reveals that public trust in national governments and the United Nations has fallen the most over the past two years.

The same set of questions has been put to representative samples of citizens around the world since January 2001. The major findings from this year’s poll are:

• Public trust levels in national governments, the United Nations and global companies are now at their lowest since tracking began in January 2001.

• Since 2004, trust in government has declined by statistically significant margins in 12 of the 16 countries for which tracking is available. The Russian government is the only exception, enjoying continuously increasing trust from its citizens since 2001.

• The United Nations, while continuing to receive higher trust levels than other institutions, has experienced a significant decline in trust from 2004 levels in 12 of 17 tracking countries, suggesting an impact from the scandal over the Oil for Food Program.

• Public trust in companies has also eroded over the last two years. After recovering trust in 2004 to pre-Enron levels, trust has since declined for both large national companies and for global companies. Trust in global companies is now at its lowest level since tracking began.

• NGOs remain the leaders in trust, but they also have to contend with decline. In 10 of 17 countries for which data is available, trust in NGOs has fallen since 2004, in some cases sharply (e.g., Brazil, India and South Korea).

These findings are based on a global public opinion poll involving a total of 20,791 interviews with citizens across 20 countries (n = 1,000 in most countries), conducted between June and August 2005 by respected research institutes in each participating country under the leadership of GlobeScan." (cited here: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/03/the_erosion_of_.html)

Key Book to Read

Book: Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, edited by Diego Gambetta. Basil Blackwell, 1988

online in full-text format, at http://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/papers/trustbook.html