The data are more troubling the shorter-term they get, and the more they risk the apples/oranges problem. As an earlier commenter (last year?) pointed out, trust is highly contextual. I would say it begs a predicate, as in “I trust my dog with my life; but not with my ham sandwich.” Trust–to do what? is a key question, and when left out of the survey (or its results), the ‘findings’ are anything but clear.

In general, what Mr. Edelman is largely measuring is very short-term opinions. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s very different from the longer-term social trust measured by such academics as Eric Uslaner, relying on the now-long-running General Social Survey. He would say that trust, while gradually declining over the years, hardly jumps about the way Edelman’s data do; Edelman is measuring what Uslaner calls ‘strategic trust,’ which as someone else pointed out is much more along the lines of ‘do I believe what X person or organization is saying is true, will they act that way.”

Incidentally, stay tuned to my blog TrustMatters where I began a series of interviews with trust experts called Trust Quotes, starting this Wednesday; one of those interviewed will be Uslaner. The blog is at
http://www.trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters

Thank you for your very useful and thoughtful commentary.

Charles H. Green
Trusted Advisor Associates