Between January 2025 and 2026, we’ve moved from feeling aggrieved to becoming more insular, according to the recently released 2026 edition of the Global Edelman Trust Barometer, “Trust Amid Insularity.”

This year’s report, Edelman’s 26^th consecutive one, shows that 7 in 10 respondents report an “unwillingness or hesitance to trust someone with different values, approaches to social issues, cultural backgrounds, or information sources.” Yes, only 1 in 3 of us are open to trusting people different from us!

This insularity is highest in developed markets, including Japan (90%) and Germany (81%). It’s also high in the UK (76%) and Canada (73%). The U.S. is at the global average, 70%. Insularity cuts across income, gender, and age.

According to the report, four forces are feeding the rise of insularity:

1. All-time high levels of economic anxiety. Concerns about downward economic mobility and job losses due to globalization have increased political polarization and economic unease. Two-thirds of employees surveyed are stressed about trade policies and tariffs that will adversely affect their employer. Lower-income (54%) and middle income (44%) respondents report fearing they will be left behind, especially as AI adoption rises.

2. Collapse in optimism. Globally, only 32% of respondents believe the next generation will be better off. The biggest declines are in India and China, each a 13% decrease over the past year. However, the lows are worth noting: France, 6%; Germany, 8%; Canada, 16%; and the S., 21%, down 9% from 2025. 

3. Continued erosion of institutional trust, especially among low-income respondents. Over the past 14 years, the gap in trust between high-and low-income groups has more than doubled globally. Now low-income groups perceive institutions on average 18% less competent than high income respondents and 15% less ethical. And the U.S. has the largest income-based trust gap at 29%. 

4. Information crisis. Trust in information continues to drop while at the same time people continue to retreat into their echo chambers. Among 75% of respondents, foreign actions injecting falsehoods into national media to inflame domestic divisions is a worry. Only 39% of respondents make an effort to seek news from ideologically different sources on a weekly basis; the other 61% get their news from sources that share their beliefs.

This insularity is a psychological state shaped by fears and crises. And it has major implications on how individuals live and work today. For example, over the past five years, the Trust Barometer has tracked how people have slid from fear to polarization to grievance and now to insularity. They are choosing the comfort of what’s familiar over the perceived dangers of the different, novel and new . As Richard Edelman, the CEO of Edelman describes the situation, “We favor nationalism over global connection and individual gain over joint progress. Our mentality has shifted from ‘we’ to ‘me’.”

This “we” to “me” shift shows up in many ways. Individuals tend to trust those closest to them, including “my CEO” (66%); “my fellow citizens” (64%) and “my neighbors” (64%). However, this closeness also assumes a similarity in values. Interestingly, 42% of respondents this year said they would rather change departments at work rather than report to a manager with very different values. And 34% of employes reported they would reduce their effort for a project lead with opposing beliefs.

This insularity extends to physical proximity too. For instance, 34% of the general population said they’d accept higher prices and fewer choices if they could do business with companies based in their own country. “Foreign” companies face that much distrust.

Is there anyone who can break through these feelings of insularity? Individuals do trust “my employer.” It’s the only institution that a majority of respondents feel is capable of bridging divides and helping to build trust among warring groups. “My employer” is now the most trusted institution (78% among employees). That’s 14% ahead of business (64%) among the general population and 25% ahead of government (53%).

Yet are employers, especially top leaders, ready and willing to step up and try to broker trust? This seems like a heavy lift especially when groups vocally distrust one another and also try to insulate themselves from others. For example, just look at all the major employers in the Minneapolis area who stayed quiet during the build-up of ICE agents on their streets during December and January.  Only after the second death of a local resident on the streets by ICE agents did the employers call for de-escalation, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

What can we do as individuals? Here are some actions that I’m taking close to home:

• Reminding myself that my identity is being open-minded, not insular. When someone is insular they’re detached, isolated, and have a narrow, inward-looking perspective, even close-minded. And that can translate to avoiding risks and shunning innovation as a creator, business owner and consumer.  Do I want to be that person? No!

• Attending monthly Eastside neighborhood meetings in Charleston to ensure that I’m staying informed. I’m also getting involved and helping where I can. For now this is mostly supporting my husband and another neighbor picking up other people’s litter and dog poop on the city streets.

• Walking the local neighborhood streets several times a day with our Corgi puppy Nigel (and picking up his dog poop). Nigel thrives on social interactions. He’s always scanning the area looking for potential people willing to pet him. He usually succeeds and I’ll often visit with the humans as they stroke Nigel. Granted, most of the conversations are small talk often revolving around dogs, the three neighborhood chickens who hang out at the liquor store’s parking lot, and all the feral cats. Sometimes it’s also chatting with college students about their studies and plans and tourists about their impressions of Charleston.

My goal is that these small actions can propel me to do more to break the pattern of isolation and distrust in society.

As background around the trust survey,  Edelman Trust Institute conducted the research, consisting of 30-minute online interviews conducted in October and November 2025. The Institute surveyed nearly 34,000 respondents across 28 countries. Since 2000, the report is updated every fall and released the next January covering a range of societal indicators of trust among business, media, government, and NGOs.