Trust Us On This. The Hopes and Grievances of 2025
On an individual level, trust doesn’t seem that tricky — relying on people you can confide in, withholding information from those you can’t and making decisions daily on who falls into which category. But on a bigger level, trust can be a tricky thing. It’s harder to know if the businesses we rely on are telling the truth, if the media is leading us to false conclusions or if the figures we look up to mean what they say.
Too Much Noise
A phrase we use often in our 2025 Gulf South Index report, it’s undeniable that finding clear, true answers is more difficult when the path is crowded with so many different distractions and noises. And today, the path seems more weighed down with distractions than ever.
Trust is Falling In the 2025 Gulf South Index, 19% of Gulf South respondents trust cable news networks “a great deal” or “quite a lot,” 20% trust online news, 17% trust social media and 23% trust newspapers or other periodicals. Compare this to 2024’s report numbers: 28%, 30%, 26%, 33%, respectively. In just one year, the noise has become so overwhelming, our trust in almost all media sources has fallen across the board.
Institutions are Hurting as well, according to a 2024 poll by Gallup. In a survey of 14 regularly tracked American institutions, people’s trust was at an all-time low of 28%. While many people still might turn to these known institutions — such as organized religion, the Supreme Court, banks, Congress and the police — their overall trust has dropped significantly from a high of 43% in the early 2000’s. The noise is starting to drown out even some of our most trusted sources.
A Crisis of Grievance: That’s the theme for Edelman’s 2025 Trust Report. Globally, 61% have a moderate or high sense of grievance, believing the businesses they interact with and the government are making their lives harder, as opposed to serving their intended interests. Over half the world remains untrusting in the face of information inundation.
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Who Are the Culprits?
We know there’s noise, but what’s causing it? The obvious answers persist — social media, the 24-hour news cycle and larger-than-life public personalities, to name a few. But every year, new fears seem to creep up on us, leading us down new confusing roads and making us wary of their intention.
Speaking of Social Media, the platform’s always-refreshing algorithm isn’t the only source of anxiety. Misinformation, data breaches and more plague users who can’t seem to look away, even at the cost of their trust and privacy. In this year’s Gulf South Index, 56% of Gulf South respondents and 62% nationally are concerned about social media’s ability to spread misinformation — more so than concerns around free speech restrictions.
But Privacy Remains a Big Concern, as Morning Consult reports 47% of U.S. adults believe respecting consumers’ privacy to be one of the most important things for a business to do in order to gain — and keep — their trust. As data collection, often using artificial intelligence, becomes more prevalent, we are inclined to trust the companies that lead us to believe our secrets are safe with them, not unlike how we choose to trust the people in our day to day lives.
And Speaking of AI: Artificial intelligence is another new(er) trust concern for most folks. Although 66% of people regularly use AI services and 83% believe AI has a range of benefits, only 46% globally trust AI systems, and 70% believe regulation intervention is needed, according to KPMG. We may have adapted AI into our lives, but we can see it’s contributing to the noise, as well.
***
So, Who Can We Trust?
If you’ve been a reader of the Gulf South Index for a while, these answers probably won’t come as a surprise to you. Family, friends, local news and businesses remain trusted sources of information and advice.
Staying Local: While we know trust in most sources has gone down from this year’s Gulf South Index report, local news remains the most trustworthy at 35% in the Gulf South and 40% nationally, with friends and neighbors following with 31% across both demographics as well. If we’ve lost faith in our bigger institutions, we are still looking to those closest to us to guide us the right way.
And We Still Trust Our Employers, according to Edelman’s 2025 Trust Report. While the U.S. has seen a 5% decline in employer trust from 2024 to 2025, 74% of us still trust our employers to do what is right. The people we spend the most time with remain our closest confidantes.
Just For Fun, we can’t help but love our entertainers. According to Morning Consult/Axios, 40% of U.S. adults consider themselves die-hard fans of a musician or band, 38% feel the same about a sports team or athlete – and unsurprisingly, Gen Z and Millennials love them the most. In modern day, and for these younger generations, this avid fandom often implies more than just a love for the public figures — there is an implicit trust that they align with their views as well and are therefore another trusted source.
***
Our conclusion isn’t a surprising one. There is a lot of information coming at us all day long, it makes less and less sense, and it gets harder and harder to determine what and who to trust. But if we narrow our scope, look down the hall or across the street, we’re more likely to find trusted people and voices who can help guide us out of the noisy mess.
On an individual level, trust doesn’t seem that tricky — relying on people you can confide in, withholding information from those you can’t and making decisions daily on who falls into which category. But on a bigger level, trust can be a tricky thing. It’s harder to know if the businesses we rely on are telling the truth, if the media is leading us to false conclusions or if the figures we look up to mean what they say.
Too Much Noise
A phrase we use often in our 2025 Gulf South Index report, it’s undeniable that finding clear, true answers is more difficult when the path is crowded with so many different distractions and noises. And today, the path seems more weighed down with distractions than ever.
Trust is Falling In the 2025 Gulf South Index, 19% of Gulf South respondents trust cable news networks “a great deal” or “quite a lot,” 20% trust online news, 17% trust social media and 23% trust newspapers or other periodicals. Compare this to 2024’s report numbers: 28%, 30%, 26%, 33%, respectively. In just one year, the noise has become so overwhelming, our trust in almost all media sources has fallen across the board.
Institutions are Hurting as well, according to a 2024 poll by Gallup. In a survey of 14 regularly tracked American institutions, people’s trust was at an all-time low of 28%. While many people still might turn to these known institutions — such as organized religion, the Supreme Court, banks, Congress and the police — their overall trust has dropped significantly from a high of 43% in the early 2000’s. The noise is starting to drown out even some of our most trusted sources.
A Crisis of Grievance: That’s the theme for Edelman’s 2025 Trust Report. Globally, 61% have a moderate or high sense of grievance, believing the businesses they interact with and the government are making their lives harder, as opposed to serving their intended interests. Over half the world remains untrusting in the face of information inundation.
***
Who Are the Culprits?
We know there’s noise, but what’s causing it? The obvious answers persist — social media, the 24-hour news cycle and larger-than-life public personalities, to name a few. But every year, new fears seem to creep up on us, leading us down new confusing roads and making us wary of their intention.
Speaking of Social Media, the platform’s always-refreshing algorithm isn’t the only source of anxiety. Misinformation, data breaches and more plague users who can’t seem to look away, even at the cost of their trust and privacy. In this year’s Gulf South Index, 56% of Gulf South respondents and 62% nationally are concerned about social media’s ability to spread misinformation — more so than concerns around free speech restrictions.
But Privacy Remains a Big Concern, as Morning Consult reports 47% of U.S. adults believe respecting consumers’ privacy to be one of the most important things for a business to do in order to gain — and keep — their trust. As data collection, often using artificial intelligence, becomes more prevalent, we are inclined to trust the companies that lead us to believe our secrets are safe with them, not unlike how we choose to trust the people in our day to day lives.
And Speaking of AI: Artificial intelligence is another new(er) trust concern for most folks. Although 66% of people regularly use AI services and 83% believe AI has a range of benefits, only 46% globally trust AI systems, and 70% believe regulation intervention is needed, according to KPMG. We may have adapted AI into our lives, but we can see it’s contributing to the noise, as well.
***
So, Who Can We Trust?
If you’ve been a reader of the Gulf South Index for a while, these answers probably won’t come as a surprise to you. Family, friends, local news and businesses remain trusted sources of information and advice.
Staying Local: While we know trust in most sources has gone down from this year’s Gulf South Index report, local news remains the most trustworthy at 35% in the Gulf South and 40% nationally, with friends and neighbors following with 31% across both demographics as well. If we’ve lost faith in our bigger institutions, we are still looking to those closest to us to guide us the right way.
And We Still Trust Our Employers, according to Edelman’s 2025 Trust Report. While the U.S. has seen a 5% decline in employer trust from 2024 to 2025, 74% of us still trust our employers to do what is right. The people we spend the most time with remain our closest confidantes.
Just For Fun, we can’t help but love our entertainers. According to Morning Consult/Axios, 40% of U.S. adults consider themselves die-hard fans of a musician or band, 38% feel the same about a sports team or athlete – and unsurprisingly, Gen Z and Millennials love them the most. In modern day, and for these younger generations, this avid fandom often implies more than just a love for the public figures — there is an implicit trust that they align with their views as well and are therefore another trusted source.
***
Our conclusion isn’t a surprising one. There is a lot of information coming at us all day long, it makes less and less sense, and it gets harder and harder to determine what and who to trust. But if we narrow our scope, look down the hall or across the street, we’re more likely to find trusted people and voices who can help guide us out of the noisy mess.
President
The Ehrhardt Group