Can digital build trust?

It’s been a bad few years for trust.

Type “trust” into your favourite search engine, followed by words like “government”, “business”, “media” or “banks” and you’ll be rewarded with a slew of headlines about how trust has collapsed in all these institutions. In the western world, the most visible effect of this decline has been a resurgence in populist politics, based on a nihilism that says that politicians are all as untrustworthy as each other.

Every year, the communications consultancy Edelman undertakes a piece of research called “The Edelman Trust Barometer”, which measures this sort of civic and societal trust. Between 2017 and 2018, trust recorded its greatest ever fall in the US. In the rest of the world, the picture wasn’t much better: 20 of the 28 markets surveyed were in “distruster territory” and the overall picture was “a world of seemingly stagnant distrust”.

So what is happening – and what can be done?

It’s important to understand the roots of this distrust. Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, there’s been a feeling in much of the western world that the economy works for the few and not the many. Here, you might expect trust to be slowly recovering – but it isn’t. The main reason for this is that not only did the rich do quite well out of the financial crisis, the many have continued to suffer its effects in the form of stagnant wages and austerity.

The lack of trust in governments is partly down to this. But technology has played a big role too. As a society, we have been seduced by new technologies (principally smartphones and social media). According to the UK Office of National Statistics, almost three quarters of UK adults use mobiles to access the internet and the second largest online activity (after email) is social media.

The rush to embrace this new world has often blinded us to its downsides. Fake news has proliferated on social media platforms. It has undermined trust in governments, the traditional media and institutions like universities. We have also, perhaps, in our enthusiastic embrace of followers, likes and links, lost sight of the idea that human-to-human relationships are the basis of trust in both business and society.

However, there are reasons for optimism. Not all countries have seen a decline in trust. In fact, some, such as India and China, have seen trust grow. Here, it is notable that while wages have stagnated in much of the West, in India and China they have grown. Economic growth – if shared equitably – is one of the greatest drivers of trust.

Growth has a curious two-fold effect on trust. Firstly, when wages grow (particularly from a low level) people start to see that they have a greater stake in society. They feel more invested in it and that it does more for them – and they start to invest more trust in the civic institutions around them. Second, they demand more of these institutions and expect greater transparency. They are less likely to tolerate corruption. It is the very definition of a virtuous circle.

Here, digital transformation has been a huge driver. In developing countries, smartphones have achieved a version of Bill Gates’s long-ago dream of a computer in every home. They mean that people in places like the slums of Mumbai can connect to the entire world – and have access to finance, information, customers and suppliers. This makes starting a business immeasurably easier.

Of course, technology cannot function in a vacuum and there is a huge role here for both governments and the private sector in fostering a climate that builds greater trust and allows these digital entrepreneurs to flourish.

Perhaps surprisingly, I believe digital transformation can help rebuild trust in the developed world too. Although technology’s role in the spread of disinformation has received a lot of attention, it also has huge potential to ensure transparency and compliance – for example, with blockchain.

Moreover, the early days of any technology are a bit like the Wild West. With social media, this phase is passing and we are starting to see greater emphasis on collective responsibility and real relationships rather than follower numbers.

Even so, in places like the US and Europe, there’s a lot of trust to be rebuilt. To do so will require a concerted effort from government, media, business (especially the tech giants) and citizens. But do it we must – because a world without trust is unthinkable.