Public trust in business executives dropped last year, according to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, falling more than any other category including political leaders, journalists and scientists. Citizens’ economic optimism also cratered as inflation and higher interest rates roiled markets and thrusted the global economy into uncertainty.

Those are just a few takeaways from Edelman’s annual global survey, released as the World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland. It is one of the most extensive indicators of public trust in four core institutions (business, media, government and non-governmental organizations), and this year Edelman surveyed 32,000 respondents in 28 countries.

Here’s what you need to know: 

Executives face the brunt of growing distrust: The public’s trust in CEOs dropped two per cent compared with 2021, with 48 per cent of respondents now saying they had faith in executives. Political leaders, co-workers and “people in my local community” dropped by one per cent. Trust in journalists remained unchanged; scientists’ trust increased one per cent, and “citizens of my country” rose two per cent, the most of any category. 

Still, overall trust in business was higher than governments by a margin of roughly 11 per cent, according to Edelman. Trust in journalists, while unchanged from 2021, remained lower than that in businesses overall. Forty-two per cent of respondents said the media was a “false or misleading” source of information, compared with 30 per cent for businesses; 46 per cent of respondents said the government was a source of false information. 

Canadian businesses highly trusted abroad: Even as overall trust in CEOs fell globally, Canadian-headquartered companies registered among the most trustworthy by foreign respondents. Sixty-seven per cent of foreign respondents said they trusted Canadian companies, compared with Japan (61 per cent), the U.S. (55 per cent) and South Korea (48 per cent). Trust in Chinese companies was 32 per cent. 

Economic anxieties and social divisions deepening: The number of people who agreed with the statement “my family and I will be better off in five years” dropped 10 per cent globally in 2022. In Canada, agreement with the statement dropped six per cent, compared with the U.S. (negative four per cent), the U.K. (negative seven per cent) and Australia (negative 11 per cent). 

Concerns over job loss was the biggest source of anxiety among respondents (89 per cent), followed by climate change (76 per cent), inflation (74 per cent) and nuclear war (72 per cent). 

Most respondents (53 per cent) believe their country is more divided today than in the past. In Canada, 60 per cent of respondents felt the nation is more divided. 

Business leaders, NGO leaders and teachers, however, are seen as a “unifying force” amid widening divisions, while journalists, government leaders and hostile foreign governments were seen as dividing forces.