Information You Can Use: A Bi-monthly Service for the UN and Civil Society
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - February 2005

NGOs gain confidence of public
Source: International Herald Tribune
24 January 2005
by: Eric Pfanner

LONDON Trust in government and business has eroded across the United States and Europe, while confidence in nongovernmental organizations is on the rise, according to a survey of public attitudes toward institutions that is to be published this week.

The study, by Edelman Public Relations, shows that on both sides of the Atlantic, so-called NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace are more trusted than business, government or the media. Fifty-five percent of Americans said they trusted NGOs, up from 47 percent a year earlier, while 45 percent of Europeans expressed similar feelings, up from 41 percent.

Edelman polled 1,500 people it described as "opinion leaders" - college educated, with relatively high incomes and an interest in public affairs - in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, Brazil, Canada and Japan, asking them about their perceptions of public institutions and brand names.

Over all, the firm said, its sixth annual "Trust Barometer" showed what Edelman called a "democratization of information."

More people than year ago trust information gleaned from the Internet, for example. And in many countries, survey respondents prefer local sources of news, and they prefer brand spokesmen who appear to be ordinary people rather than executives.

"With all the scandals in government and the business world, people are saying, whom can I trust?" Michael Deaver, vice chairman of Edelman and former aide to President Ronald Reagan, said in an interview by phone.

The corporate scandals that started with the collapse of Enron continue to batter corporate images. In Europe, only 36 percent of people said they trusted business, for instance, although 67 percent of the respondents in Brazil did so.

The survey showed a continuing trans-Atlantic rift in perceptions of U.S. brands.

Coca-Cola, for instance, was trusted by 69 percent of respondents in the United States, but in Europe, where the brand has of late had marketing setbacks, only 45 percent said they trusted it.

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