UAE residents trust in government, health authorities, media improves in 2022

The UAE residents’ trust in the government and their belief about their future financial position in the UAE have substantially improved this year, according to Edelman Trust Barometer 2022.

In addition to government and their financial position, the residents' trust grew in almost all the sub-indexes such as health authorities, employers, central bank, businesses, NGOs, media and global bodies including World Health Organisation, United Nations and European Union.

Trust in the UAE government improved by 7 per cent to 87 per cent in 2022 – the second-biggest increase after a 9 per cent rise in trust in the Chinese government. But trust in most of the governments globally dropped, prominently in Germany (-12 per cent), The Netherlands (-11 per cent), Australia (-9 per cent) South Korea (-8 per cent) and Argentina (-8 per cent).

The government was the most trusted institution in the May 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer. It was expected to lead during the height of the pandemic but has since suffered a dramatic fall, dropping 13 points, from 65 per cent to 52 per cent.

The 22nd edition of the survey took inputs from more than 36,000 respondents across 28 countries, covering business, NGOs, government and media. The business was the most trusted institution at 61 per cent, followed by NGOs at 59 per cent, government at 52 per cent and media at 50 per cent.

Globally, according to Edelman, a majority of people believe they are being lied to by journalists (67 per cent, up 8 points) and government leaders (66 per cent, up 9 points).

“This vicious cycle of distrust threatens societal stability. It’s a death grip where media is chasing clicks and government is chasing votes, both feeding a cycle of disinformation and division and exploiting it for commercial and political gain,” says Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman.

In the UAE, 78 per cent of residents believe that they and their family will be better off in the coming five years, 6 per cent more people than the last year.

Some of the key factors that have boosted sentiments of the UAE residents could be opening up of the economy and improvement in the job market with the beginning of the Expo 2020 Dubai and successful handling of the Covid-19 pandemic – as UAE is the world’s most vaccinated country against the pandemic.

Trust in the UAE employers and businesses witnessed a double-digit increase, growing by 10 per cent to 85 per cent, and 11 per cent to 78 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, trust in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media increased eight per cent for both the sub-indices to 73 and 64 per cent, respectively. But overall trust in media dropped in most of the countries including the US, South Korea, UK, Australia among others.

Moreover, trust in the UAE’s health authorities improved strongly, thanks to professional and proactive handling of the pandemic. Around 87 per cent of residents have placed trust in the health authorities, up six per cent, and the second-highest after China. While trust in the central bank was third highest at 86 per cent.

Among the global bodies, UAE residents’ trust in WHO increased 10 per cent to 78 per cent, trust in the UN grew to 74 per cent, up six per cent, and confidence in the EU expanded seven per cent to 71 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2021.