RSA Journal Issue 1 2025

Comment 26 Mar 2025

A question of trustworthiness.

Andy Haldane

CEO, the RSA

There has been a haemorrhaging of trust in our communities, governments, businesses and civil society organisations. How we rebuild trust and trustworthiness is discussed by the RSA’s chief executive, as he introduces the latest issue of the Journal.

Access to information has never been greater, and the world has never been more of an open book. Transparency has become a watchword for the good governance of communities, governments, businesses and civil society organisations. Yet knowing so much more, how is it we appear to trust so much less, including our communities, governments, businesses and civil society organisations?

One explanation is that familiarity can breed contempt as well as trust. The more we see, the less we might like and respect. The contents of some sausages – and institutions – are best kept secret. Another explanation is that the drive for transparency may itself be a reflection of failures in trust. A truly trustworthy person or organisation is one whose word, rather than the small print in their contracts, is their bond.

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Whatever the explanation, the pattern over the past half-century is clear enough: while technology has increased the number of our connections to distant ties – our Facebook ‘friends’ – this has come at the expense of the quality of connections to our closest ties – our real friends and communities. Rachel Botsman explores this paradox in the lead article of this ‘Trust’ issue of the Journal.

Nowhere is the haemorrhaging of trust greater than in politics – a topic I explore in my discussion with Britain’s leading pollster Professor Sir John Curtice. Why have populist insurgents stolen a march over mainstream parties in their trust among the public?

Are we witnessing a rupture in political systems, with looser ties among the electorate generating a political landscape more fluid than solid?

In such a dynamic and uncertain environment, optimism and imagination are sorely needed yet often in short supply. As Sumit Paul-Choudhury discusses in an article based on his new book The Bright Side, collective optimism has always held the key to human innovation and progress. When we believe in a better future, even the toughest global challenges can morph into opportunities.

A truly trustworthy person or organisation is one whose word, rather than the small print in their contracts, is their bond.

Yet building trust remains elusive, perhaps, in part because the concept is itself multifaceted. To that end, the other articles in this issue examine trust from different disciplinary angles – including Caitlin Looby on trust in science, Professor Raj Chetty on trust and social mobility and Beth Cavener’s wonderful animal sculptures exploring trust and human emotion.

Some of our articles offer solutions, while others reflect on the trust dilemma and how best to understand it. As ever, they are meant as a prompt for debate, and action, in the Fellowship and beyond. These issues are particularly relevant in this the RSA’s year of ‘Connection’ and against a backdrop of increasing division at the geopolitical, national and local levels.

In her Reith lectures in 2002, philosopher Onora O’Neill drew the important distinction between trust and trustworthiness. She argued it is the latter that really matters. Her words have rarely been more prescient. In a rudderless world, leaders will need to rediscover their humanity, humility and humour to re-establish trustworthiness and rise to O’Neill’s challenge.

Andy Haldane is Chief Executive Officer at the RSA.