Thought Leadership – By Peter Harris, The Research Society What are we waiting for? afford to wait before we supercharge on mass how we engage with The Global Research Business Network (GRBN) have released the people and credibly build trust? latest global results in their “Trust” report, a repeat of a study To maximise engagement, similarly to most human interactions, the undertaken in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The news for the Market key to winning people over every time and achieving real human Research (‘MR’) industry in Australia was positive with our net trust connection is empathy, closely followed by belonging and index increasing vs. 2018, but there remains a lot of work to do. authenticity. Let’s unpack what these 3 pillars mean for MR: Overall, 75% of Australians see MR as beneficial to companies, Empathy: are we asking relevant topics in engaging ways? Are we significantly more than they see it as beneficial to themselves. Over asking interesting questions in an interesting way that people can one third see surveys as being too long and not enjoyable. make sense of? Are we really listening and responding like humans For MR, COVID-19 has had a minimal impact on our trust scores, do? however, looking across categories, there was a significant positive Belonging: are we feeding back why people’s views matter and what shift for trust in health authorities, which makes sense given how is happening with the information being collected from them? Do well the Australian health system managed the crisis. At the other they feel part of the solution or just part of someone’s process? end of the scale, the media and social media companies saw Authenticity: are we promoting good practice and calling out bad negative shifts in trust. There is huge distrust in Australia for any practice? company that is not adequately protecting and appropriately using An interesting and topical example is the public’s interest in Black personal data. So, the question has to be asked for MR, given the Lives Matter, and its varied focus for different countries and groups. impact the Cambridge Analytica data scandal had on trust, can we GRBN Global Trust Survey 2020 - AU Report © 2020 GRBN 6