公众对机构信任度创危机后新低

Global public confidence in institutions has evaporated in the last year, taking trust levels back to lows not seen since the financial crisis in 2009, according to research to be presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

根据一份将于本周在达沃斯(Davos)世界经济论坛(World Economic Forum)上展示的研究报告，去年全球公众对各机构的信心不再，导致人们的信任水平跌至2009年金融危机爆发以来从未出现过的低点。

“Unimaginable events” from the Ebola crisis to the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner, Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the forex rate-rigging scandal and the high-profile hacks of Sony Pictures and celebrity photos on Apple’s iCloud have created a “sense that things are out of control,” said Richard Edelman, chief executive of the world’s largest public relations consultancy by revenues, which publishes the annual Edelman Trust Barometer.

全球营收最高的公共关系咨询机构爱德曼(Edelman)每年都会发布爱德曼信任度调查报告(Edelman Trust Barometer)。该公司首席执行官理查德•爱德曼(Richard Edelman)表示，从埃博拉病毒危机，到马航客机的失联、俄罗斯对乌克兰的干预、外汇利率操纵丑闻、备受关注的索尼影视(Sony Pictures)遭遇黑客攻击事件、以及苹果公司(Apple)iCloud艳照门事件，种种“难以想象的事件”让人产生了一种“诸多事情处于失控状态的感觉”。

The rapid pace of innovation across industries has also left many people feeling unsettled, depressing confidence in both business’s and government’s ability to manage change.

各产业快速的创新节奏也让许多人产生不安定感，并抑制了他们对企业和政府应对变化能力的信心。

“All this has had a negative effect on trust in institutions. We’ve given back all the gains of the last five years,” he said.

他说：“所有这些都对人们对机构的信任产生了负面影响。过去五年里增加的所有信任度都被一扫而空。”

For the first time, nearly two-thirds of the 27 nations surveyed fell on the “distrustful” end of Edelman’s index, gauging respondents’ trust in government, business, media and non-governmental organisations.

在被调查的27个国家里，首次有近三分之二的国家落在了爱德曼指数的“不信任”区间。所谓爱德曼指数，是用来衡量回应者对政府、企业、媒体和非政府组织(NGO)信任程度的指标。

Among the informed public segment of the 33,000-person survey — a group of 700 wealthy, well-educated, well-informed individuals — 57 per cent said they trusted business, down from 59 per cent last year.

这一调查有3.3万人参加。其中，在由700名富有、受过良好教育、文化水平很高的个人组成的一个高知公众群体中，57%的人表示他们信任企业，低于去年的59%。

In half of the countries surveyed, trust in business dipped below 50 per cent, the worst reading since 2008. Canada, Germany, Australia and Argentina saw the biggest declines, with the percentage of those trusting in business dropping more than 10 points. In the US, however, trust rose from 58 to 60 per cent.

在半数被调查国家中，对企业的信任比例跌至50%以下，这是2008年以来的最低读数。其中，加拿大、德国、澳大利亚和阿根廷的跌幅最大，信任企业的人比例减少了逾10个百分点。不过在美国，人们对企业的信任比例却从58%升至60%。

Trust in government rose overall from 45 per cent to 48 per cent but after stripping out large jumps in India and Indonesia, which held national elections in 2014, government trust dipped to 44 per cent. The sharpest falls came in South Korea, where trust dropped from 45 per cent to 33 per cent, and Malaysia, down to 45 per cent from 54 per cent. In Russia, in contrast, trust doubled from 27 per cent to 54 per cent.

对政府的总体信任比例则从45%升至48%。不过，在刨除了印度和印尼的大幅度增长之后，对政府的信任则降至44%。此前，印度和印尼两国都在2014年举行了大选。对政府的信任比例中，跌幅最大的是韩国和马来西亚。韩国该比例从45%跌至33%，马来西亚则从54%跌至45%。相比之下，俄罗斯的情况正相反，该国信任政府的比例翻了一番，从27%升至54%。

Trust in media dipped from 53 per cent to 51 per cent, with the lowest levels recorded in Turkey, Japan, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.

对媒体的信任比例从53%跌至51%。其中，比例最低的是土耳其、日本、冰岛、瑞典和英国。

Even NGOs, which had weathered the turbulence of the financial crisis and recovery, saw their first drop, to 63 per cent from 66 per cent last year. Trust fell most in the UK, down to 51 per cent from 67 per cent; Hong Kong, to 63 per cent from 77 per cent, and China, to 72 per cent from 84 per cent.

尽管平安度过了金融危机及其后复苏阶段的种种纷扰，非政府组织也首次遭遇了信任度下跌。对非政府组织的信任比例从去年的66%跌至63%。其中，对它们的信任比例下跌最快的是英国、香港和中国内地。英国信任非政府组织的比例从67%下跌至51%，香港则从77%下跌至63%，而中国内地则从84%下跌至72%。

Mr Edelman pointed to unhappiness with NGOs’ ability to pushing change in China and in tackling energy issues, such as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, in the UK.

爱德曼指出，人们对非政府组织在中国内地不能推动变革、在英国不能解决“水力压裂法”等能源问题十分不满。

The rise of new technologies, including fracking, has emerged as a fresh factor weighing on public confidence.

包括水力压裂等新技术的崛起，已成为为公众信心带来压力的新因素。

“Innovation should be a trust accelerator, but it is actually a trust anchor,” Mr Edelman said. “It is seen as unregulated, good for companies and individuals but not for society.”

爱德曼表示：“创新原本应该促进人们的信任，实际上却阻碍了人们的信任。人们认为，创新不受监管，尽管它对企业和个人很有好处，却无益于社会。”

Fifty-one per cent of those surveyed said the pace of development and change in business was too fast, versus 28 per cent who found it too slow and 19 per cent judging it just right.

51%的被调查者表示商业的发展和变革节奏太快，认为它太慢的只有28%，而认为它正合适的则只有19%。

Genetically modified foods and hydraulic fracturing were least trusted, at 32 per cent and 47 per cent, while confidence was higher in electronic and mobile payments (69 per cent) and personal health tracking (59 per cent.)

转基因食品和水力压裂法是最不受信任的技术，信任这两样技术的比例分别为32%和47%。相比之下，人们对电子设备和移动支付的信任程度更高，信任比例为69%。还有就是个人健康跟踪技术也较受信任，信任比例为59%。

Respondents favoured tighter regulation of innovations, but only half said they trusted policy makers to do that effectively.

回应者更倾向于加强对技术创新的监管。不过，只有半数的人表示，他们相信政策制定者能有效监管技术创新。

Trust in innovation correlated with overall trust in institutions, with countries such as the UAE, India and Indonesia expressing higher confidence in both, and Germany, Japan and Sweden being more distrustful.

对技术创新的信任程度与对机构的总体信任程度有相关性。在阿联酋(UAE)、印度和印尼等国家，人们对两者的信心相对较高。而在德国、日本和瑞典，人们对两者的信任程度较低。