By Prabhakar Mundkur
Edelman publishes an annual Trust Barometer and the report for 2017 is just out. Its contents are fitting with the beginning of a new era the era of post-truth. According to Ralph Keyes, author of the book The Post-Truth Era, at one time we had truth and lies but now we have truth, lies, and statements that may not be true but we consider too benign to call false.
Lie to me
Post-truth made a controversial entry into the renowned Oxford dictionary as the Word of the Year 2016. As per their definition, its relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.[su_pullquote]Post-truth made a controversial entry into the renowned Oxford dictionary as the Word of the Year 2016.[/su_pullquote] For instance, In this era of post-truth politics, it’s easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire. Or one might say, Some commentators have observed that we are living in a post-truth age.
One must then suppose that the Edelman Trust Barometer 2017 is reflective of this new age. In fact, the 2016 report summed up the year gone by in the phrase the growing inequality of trust. However, theyve gone a step further this year in describing it as trust in crises.
Unprecedented crisis of trust
Edelman assesses the level of trust that societies put into the four institutional pillars of a nation government, business, media and NGOs. They open with a visualization of the trust gap back that has been widening ever since 2012. It isnt hard to see why the widest chasms have been in the United States and the United Kingdom – 2016 has been a tumultuous year for both. But France in the third position might come as a surprise to some.
India looks the other way
In observing the Indian perspective, it is astonishing to see where India finds itself placed as compared to the rest of the world. We appear to put an immense amount of trust in our institutions. This isnt reflective of just the mass population, but the so-called informed public as well. The study defined informed public as the online population above the age of 18. On the other hand, the mass population represents the entire population of the nation, excluding the informed public, and this accounts for 87% of the global population.
As per the study, those countries with a trust percentage over sixty are referred to as trusters. In the mass population context, only three countries feature in this selection India, Indonesia and China. It isnt a matter of simple coincidence that these are the worlds most populous nations.
There is an evident disparity between the informed public and the mass population.
As per the Census of 2011, overall literacy rates in India may be 74.04% but this hasnt kept up with the rising population. In all likelihood, the illiterate quarter of our population has a certain hope and faith that they put into the institutions, simply because they know no better. A dis-informed public is an unfortunate groundwork for the gullible. In effect, the mass population in these three nations is left far behind every other country in the world.
In government, we trust
[su_pullquote align=”right”]A government that was accused of every scam in the book, lost by the biggest margins and yet had a trust rate of 57%.[/su_pullquote]
Putting the spotlight on trust in government, its understandable why this has evaporated at such a rapid rate among Western societies.This is in stark contrast to India where weve seen a 10% upswing over last year, with the present government sitting pretty at 75%
For curiositys sake, I looked up the same figure in the Edelman Trust Barometer of 2013. A government that was accused of every scam in the book, and lost by the biggest of margins still had a trust rate of 57%! Staggering, to say the least.
Media on a mantel
The popular rhetoric in public domain has been that the media is dishonest and cannot be relied upon for presenting the truth. Nonetheless, it should come as no surprise anymore that Indians are immensely trusting of their media! At a time when trust in media is plunging to all-time lows in the rest of the world. The recent discourse over demonetization unlikely to have been in scope for this years report, but that will certainly pose an interesting picture next year.
Fragile: Please handle with care
Edelmans appraisal raises a significant question are Indians more trusting than other populations in the world? Data suggests the answer be in affirmative.
Greater sections of society are likely to be taken advantage of, marked by or arising from credulity.
Putting trust in the fundamental pillars of our great nation isnt adverse. But one certainly hopes that we arent all too gullible. It is wrong to betray this trust, as it is said, trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair.