Exclusive: Global trust data finds our shared reality is collapsing
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Democracy, markets and social cohesion all depend on some shared understanding of facts and legitimacy.
- The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, set to be released Sunday, reveals deep cracks in that foundation.
Why it matters: The PR giant's massive annual survey suggests the global trust crisis has crossed a new threshold. Worldwide, people no longer accept the same sources, authorities or even the validity of the act of disagreement itself.
- In the absence of trusted information, people are turning to family, friends and even their bosses to try and figure out the world.
Zoom out: Only 39% of people globally say they get information weekly from sources with a different political leaning — down six points in a single year, according to Edelman's survey of more than 37,500 people across 28 countries.
- Over the past five years, trust has drained from national government leaders (–16) and major news organizations (–11), and flowed instead to personal circles: neighbors, family and friends (+11), coworkers (+11) and "my CEO" (+9).
Stunning stat: Among both the highest- and lowest-income respondents, business enjoys a vast trust advantage over government — seen as 43 points more competent and 27 points more ethical.
Zoom in: As faith weakens in shared institutions and sources, people are consolidating trust within smaller circles.
- In media, Axios has described this as the "shards of glass" phenomenon: information now flows through highly personalized channels and algorithms, rather than a common ecosystem.
- As the world retreats into insularity, power is shifting toward those who can mobilize loyal audiences rather than persuade broad coalitions.
Between the lines: Shared reality is achievable when these "shards" overlap.
- Liberal baby boomers who watch MS NOW, for example, are likely consuming the same partisan narratives as millennials who follow MeidasTouch on YouTube and Instagram.
- On the right, Fox News and conservative digital creators often perform a similar function — synchronizing narratives across age groups and platforms.
But in many cases, different shards reflect entirely different realities.
- Take Elon Musk's X platform, which is home to thousands of sub-cultures: Many of its most avid users believe the mainstream media intentionally lies, and rely on xAI chatbot Grok to sort the most basic facts from fiction.
- Open TikTok, Twitch, Rumble or Discord, and you'll discover creators with huge audiences and outsized influence over how their communities understand the world.
The big picture: The phenomenon goes beyond traditional polarization. It's fragmentation at a societal level — making shared facts harder to establish, arbiters of truth harder to find, and disagreement harder to resolve.
- The AI revolution is accelerating the trust crisis, multiplying plausible versions of reality faster than gatekeepers — to the extent they still exist — can keep up.
- AI has also lowered the cost of producing persuasive disinformation, including content propagated by foreign actors who seek to exploit existing fractures.
The bottom line: Edelman's data points to a shift in where authority now resides: away from institutions that persuade across differences, and toward figures who command trust within fragments.
