New Research: American Trust Crisis Explodes
Mapping trust across 23 public and political institutions, 33 industries, and 21 professions
Is it fair to say our information environment is a bit of a dumpster fire these days? And not just from outrage or oversaturation. People are tuning out key leaders, institutions, and ideas because they don’t know what to believe, and more pointedly, they don’t know who to trust.
That’s why we built this:
Our first national trust survey—led by my colleague Aaron Braxton, the EVP, Head of Research and Insights at NewWorld—maps trust across 33 industries, 23 institutions, and 21 professions. The results are as sobering as they are revealing: almost no institution breaks 40%. Trust hasn’t just declined—it’s disintegrating.
This white paper is more than just a data dump. It’s a new resource for understanding what it takes to build durable influence —and why traditional strategies focused on interruptive transactional persuasion - like digital ads - might drive attention without building a relationship that inspires action.
Trust became a minor obsession on our team during the 2024 election when we noticed something unsettling. Voter intent seemed to be moving in polls. Kamala Harris’s “Brat summer” of cultural activation seemed to have the whole internet falling out of the same coconut tree. Momentum, finally, seemed to be shifting in the race. But trust wasn’t. Among multiracial working-class voters, Kamala Harris’s campaign didn’t move the needle on trust for the candidate for 12 solid weeks. This taught us what the toplines often miss: when trust flatlines, everything else is just noise. That insight shaped how we saw the race—and the postmortem.
Starting with Everything’s on Fire, we are building a broader set of tools around trust. Because it’s not enough to produce more content or scale more influencers if we aren’t measuring the right outcomes. If we don’t center trust (and its complex components) as the real driver of durable influence, we might just be adding to the chaos - making things worse with better intentions. Chaos helps win elections for cynical candidates who prey on fear and confusion; but for those with a progressive vision we must win trust: in government, in the possibility of change, and even in the belief that working together through compromise and tolerance in an open society is a better option for delivering security and prosperity than the violence and intimidation of authoritarian rule.
This report is the first public offering in that new system. It’s a map of where trust lives (and where it’s dying). And it’s a starting point for anyone serious about reaching audiences who have every reason to tune out. I come from the worlds of media and politics, but this is just as relevant (and on many pages even more pointed) for my friends working in marketing and with consumer brands.
So whether you’re in media, politics, marketing, brand strategy, or philanthropy—or if you’re simply trying to communicate in an environment shaped by disbelief—this one’s for you.
Download the full white paper here: research.newworld.inc/trust.
If it resonates, share this post on LinkedIn and tag @newworldhq.
This is fascinating! Really interesting to see Advertising, Social Media, Big Tech, and Podcasts circling the drain at the bottom given what a massive part of our daily lives those industries are.