As it stands, businesses are more trusted than NGOs, governments, and the media. This is quite a shift from 2020 when they were the 3rd most trusted.

Trust in all four institutions has fallen, but the drop was smallest for businesses leading to their new place at the top. This shows that businesses have done far better in retaining trust during the pandemic. It also raises questions for the media and governments in how they can build back the trust they’ve lost in that time.

Now let’s see how more granular groups compare.

In what may be a relief to many, scientists are the most trusted of these groups followed closely by, more surprisingly, co-workers. That means we trust the people we work with more than our national health authorities. Make of that what you will.

It also highlights an interest disparity between CEOs in general and people’s own CEO.

CEOs as a whole, along with journalists and government leaders, are the only groups where a majority of people do not trust them. But when asked about their own CEO, they were the 3rd most trusted group. This suggests a type of Schrödinger’s effect concerns CEOs where they are both good and bad depending on if they pay your wages and can fire you.

Let’s move back to businesses as a whole. While companies may be more trusted than other institutions, there’s still a big chunk of the populace who don’t trust them. They’ll never reach 100%, but what could they be doing to improve their image?

To get some ideas, we can look at the societal issues people think businesses are neglecting.

As our research into COP26 showed, climate change is a major concern for an increasing amount of people, with that trend set to continue. It’s no surprise that we see climate change as the issue most people feel businesses aren’t tackling enough.

It’s a responsibility that is hard to escape, especially as people attempt to make their personal lives more green. Of course governments have a huge role to play, but businesses cannot hide. And if they want to improve, or simply maintain their reputation, how they contribute to and fight climate change is key.

For the other issues, while all below 50% of respondents, there’s still masses of people who are expecting more from businesses. There’s no clear action to take as it will depend on the business itself, but for those who have dismissed these issues out of hand, they might want to reassess before others get there first.

What should we cover next?

Is there a topic, trend, or industry you’d like us to feature in the Brandwatch Bulletin? We want to hear your ideas to make sure our readers are getting what they want. We may even ask to interview you if you’re involved with the topic.

Send any and all ideas to [email protected] and let’s talk.

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Stay safe,

The Brandwatch React team