AdAge reports that Edelman’s “Trust Barometer” has grim news: we don’t trust much of anybody anymore when it comes to product and company recommendations. But for a lucky few, there’s also some good news:
Conversely, CEOs — who have of late been trotted out as public faces of their companies in times of stress, such as General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre — saw the biggest year-over-year increase from 17% in 2009 to 26% this year. Other groups seeing increases in the level of consumer trust were government officials (22% vs. 27%), a financial/industry analyst (46% vs. 52%)….
In some cases, social networks themselves may be contributing to the decline in trust. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed people to maintain larger circles of casual associates, which may be diluting the credibility of peer-to-peer networks. In short, the more acquaintances a person has, the harder it can be to trust him or her. Mr. Edelman believes the Facebook component has “absolutely” played a role in diluting trust levels.
If this is really true, it’s beyond bizarre. Consumers trust each other less but trust CEOs, government officials, and financial analysts more? In other words, they trust the very people who were most responsible for our recent financial collapse? WTF?
