•  MARCH 27, 2025 • 

Welcome to the Edelman Trust Institute's newsletter — providing information, context, and applications for trust in business and society. If you find this insightful, pass it along to a friend or colleague. And don’t forget to subscribe.  

Theresa Peterson 

Theresa Peterson is the Principal Researcher at the Edelman Trust Institute

Contracts help us organize our relationships—with each other, and with institutions. One of the most foundational ones is the social contract: The implicit and evolving agreement about what institutions do for us, and what we, in turn, will do for them.  

A recent survey fielded by the Edelman Trust Institute asked 4,000 respondents in Brazil, India, the UK, and the U.S. how living through the COVID pandemic changed society. The findings revealed a breakdown in the terms of exchange and a need to renegotiate the social contract 

One of the fundamental promises institutions make is that they will keep us safe, but we don’t trust institutions do just that. Respondents said that in the event of a future pandemic, only their employer is trusted to keep them and their communities safe. Other institutions—business, government, media, and NGOs—are actively distrusted. 

This institutional breach of terms influences what we’re willing to give back to society. When safety isn’t assured and we feel the next generation will be worse off, having children means taking on a massive amount of risk. Because of living through the COVID pandemic, 18 percent of 18–34-year-olds in Brazil, 36 percent in India, 21 percent in the UK, and 27 percent in the U.S. have decided not to have kids.  

We need a new agreement between individuals and institutions in which expectations, roles, and mutual benefits are defined. Without this our future is at stake: we will be unprepared for a future pandemic and future generations may opt out of parenting. To have constructive negotiations, institutional leaders must: 

• Listen and learn: Identify how your actions impacted people during the pandemic and areas where you would behave differently in the future 
• Be transparent about what you can and will deliver: Lean into where your capabilities overlap with your societal responsibility
• Deliver on updated expectations: Action earns trust. Follow through on your commitments. 

The negotiations over the social contract have already begun. Trust is the currency of these negotiations and if institutions want to earn it, they have to prove that they’re worth trusting again.  

Future Pandemic Response: My Employer Trusted, Business Less So

Percent who say

2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: The Unseen Impacts of COVID. TRU_PAN_PREP. For each of the below, please indicate how much you trust each of the following institutions to do what is right to keep you and your community safe in the event of another pandemic. 9-point scale; top 4 box, trust. "My employer" only asked to those who are an employee of an organization (Q43/1). General population, by country.

A Podcast from Edelman and Advertising Week

The TrustMakers is where listeners learn from global experts about what it takes to build trust in today’s society. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Roxy Young, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at Reddit joins Edelman's Smita Reddy for a conversation about what makes Reddit a trusted source of information and how brands can use the platform to reach customers. 

Explore data from the Edelman Trust Barometer 

Explore Edelman Trust Barometer data on the general population’s trust in four institutions – Business, Government, Media, and NGOs – or the average of the four (the Trust Index). The data can be explored over time, by country, and/or among a collection of demographics. 

Richard Edelman on His Company's Latest Trust Barometer Five Years After the Start of the Pandemic

Thank you for reading The Trust Report

Visit the Edelman Trust Institute for more trust research and insights.