Trust Is Taking a Nosedive. Here’s How Great Ideas, Humans and Content Can Fix It

Trust is taking a nosedive. Confidence in institutions has dropped to historic lows, right across politics, technology and business.

The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer calls it a “crisis of grievance". More than six in ten people worldwide believe the system benefits the few at the expense of the many. People are cynical, and they are tired.

Meanwhile, 70% of respondents think government and business leaders deliberately mislead the public. Yet there's also an opportunity here. Among all institutions, business still ranks highest for trust, scoring 62% globally - ahead of NGOs, government and media.

That places a clear responsibility on business. People still want to believe that someone, somewhere, can act with competence and ethics. The question is who they will believe, and why.

The opportunity for businesses

When trust is fragile, communication becomes the stabiliser. Clear, honest and human communication builds the foundations that data and facts alone cannot.

As Edelman notes, business is now the only institution seen as both competent and ethical, with a marked rise in perceived integrity since 2020. That credibility sits with leaders who explain themselves clearly, link their actions to tangible benefit and tell the truth, even when it's uncomfortable.

Good content has always mattered for B2B organisations, and it still does.

In a low-trust world, content becomes the infrastructure of trust. It can restore belief, explain complexity and help people see progress as something worth supporting. It also remains one of the few things that can genuinely help a business stand out when everyone is publishing at speed.

In B2B marketing, where decisions are considered and the stakes are high, good content connects credibility with commercial impact.

The 2025 Edelman-LinkedIn Thought Leadership Impact Report reinforces the point:

• More than 40% of B2B deals stall due to misalignment among internal stakeholders, the hidden buyers who influence decisions but do not hold the budget. These individuals turn to thought leadership to assess a company’s credibility.

• 71% say it is more persuasive than marketing materials.

• 95% say it makes them more open to sales outreach.

Good content has always been a leadership tool

If you want to lead, you need good ideas and a way to express them. We've got more than two thousand years of evidence to prove that. The practice of sharing knowledge to shape understanding is far older than the term thought leadership.

During the Industrial Revolution, England’s Lunar Society gathered inventors and entrepreneurs who met regularly to exchange discoveries. Among them, Matthew Boulton used the forum to promote the steam engine with James Watt - a collaboration that helped define modern engineering.

Even earlier, Plato’s Academy served as a place for debate and reform. Today, our equivalent gatherings are digital, and our debates unfold in public.

Throughout history, progress has relied on people who could explain their ideas clearly enough for others to believe in them. That is still true. The format has changed, not the principle.

From fatigue to trust: the human dividend

In Beyond the Bot: How to Safeguard Trust as AI Content Fatigue Hits, I explored the exhaustion spreading through audiences as AI-generated material fills their feeds. Even accurate information starts to lose its impact when it all sounds the same.

That fatigue is emotional rather than rational. People can tell when writing lacks human insight. They disengage when they can't feel intent or care.

Against this backdrop, crafted content still stands apart. In Why B2B Content Needs Its Champagne Moments, I wrote about scarcity and attention, and how rarity signals value. When a piece feels made with thought and skill, it cuts through.

In an age of abundance, attention has become the rarest resource. Within that scarcity, there is an opportunity for B2B leaders to maintain or rebuild trust.

Rebuilding belief, one explanation at a time

Clear, human communication bridges progress and permission. It helps people see innovation as credible and potentially even worth embracing, rather than something to be feared.

Leaders who explain their decisions openly, ground their claims in evidence and connect their work to human benefit will continue to earn confidence. Transparency and humility turn opaque concepts into understanding.

When an organisation communicates well, everything else becomes easier. Investors and partners feel assured. Customers stay longer. Teams align.

That's the lasting power of good content: it builds belief and trust in an era that badly needs it.

If your brand is ready to rebuild trust through content that feels unmistakably human, let’s talk about how to do it together.

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