Trust, truth and ‘organized lying’: a critical study of the Edelman Trust Barometer

This chapter extends existing scholarship on the societal impact of the Influence Industry through an examination of how public relations, a core set of globally deployed influence practices and a multi-billion-dollar industry, acts as a trust intermediary in the current post-truth environment. Using the case of the Trust Barometer, an annual international survey of trust conducted by Edelman, the world’s largest public relations company, the author shows how the industry defines trust crises and their solutions in ways that rationalise business as a panacea, more trustworthy and more competent than government, the media and NGOs. The analysis also shows how public relations extends its own legitimacy and influence by engaging in ‘truth markets’ about trust. The author concludes by arguing that the Trust Barometer is a form of what critical scholars call ‘organised lying’, where survey data is presented in ways that construct a world defined by a trust crisis, broken government, polarised societies, fearful and angry citizens and a leadership vacuum. Having built this world, which persists from one year to the next, the Barometer also delivers the self-serving view that business is expected, and trusted, to rescue us from the crisis.