A new global survey underscores a worrying trend in Western societies (and beyond): people are increasingly reluctant to trust those with different values, backgrounds, or worldviews. In the UK, the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 76 per cent of Britons are hesitant or unwilling to trust individuals whose values or cultural heritage differ from their own — leaving just 24 per cent ready to extend trust across such divides.
That's not just a statistic. It's a symptom: a society that is growing not only diverse, but also insular — suspicious of "the other," uncertain how to connect with people who don't think like we do. Economists, sociologists and political analysts alike are calling this shift a decline in social trust, and it helps explain why cultural friction — not just culinary curiosity — has become a central fault line in contemporary life and diverse multicultural societies, which have been undemocratically imposed upon the West.
From Celebrating Diversity to Withdrawing into Echo Chambers
Multiculturalism was once sold as a celebration of diversity: new foods, festivals, cross-cultural friendships. But trust isn't built on fajitas and fusion pop playlists alone. When individuals are asked not just to tolerate difference but to trust and cooperate with people whose values or belief systems diverge sharply from their own — that's a far deeper test. And right now, too many people are failing it.
The Edelman data show that reluctance to trust is not confined to cultural outsiders; it also shows up in workplaces where one-third of Britons said they would rather leave a job or transfer departments than work under a manager with strongly different values. And more than a quarter admitted they'd pull back effort when working for someone whose beliefs opposed theirs.
What's striking is that this distrust isn't just about age, income, or politics — it cuts across demographics. It's become a default reaction in many rich societies, where economic anxiety, pessimism about the future, and institutional collapse combine to push people into familiar circles and away from unfamiliar ones.
Why This Situation Doesn't End Well
Here's the rub: a society that doesn't trust its neighbours won't long remain cohesive. When trust becomes scarce, so do cooperation, compromise, and civil dialogue — the very things that make multicultural interaction viable as far as that is possible. As the Edelman report puts it, grievance and fear have sloughed off polarisation and morphed into insularity — a social default that narrows perspectives and stiffens cultural rigidity.
We often hear about multiculturalism in terms of celebration: art shows, food trucks, cross-cultural dating apps. But multiculturalism founded only on surface pleasures — and without shared civic norms like respect for others, rule of law, and willingness to engage with challenge respectfully — is like building a house on sand. When times are smooth, that house might look great; when the winds blow and pressures mount, it collapses. And we are seeing considerable pressures right now — economic stagnation, demographic shifts, political distrust and indeed the residual shockwaves of events like terror attacks and social upheavals.
From "Diversity Is Our Strength" to "Who Are You, Really?"
The real challenge isn't simply living alongside difference — it's trusting and collaborating across difference. A society where three-quarters of people are wary of cooperating or even interacting meaningfully with cultural others doesn't have a future of flourishing diversity; it has a future of fragmentation and retreat.
Trust is the grease that makes the gears of multicultural society run. Without it, conversations become silos. Shared public life becomes fractured. And people start to believe that the other isn't just different — they're dangerous. That's a cycle that can turn pear-shaped quickly.
Rebuilding Trust Means More Than Policies — It Means Relationships
So what's the answer? It's not a quick policy fix — telling people to be more tolerant doesn't work if they don't feel safe or connected. Trust grows through mutual experience, shared challenges, and a sense of common purpose. It grows when individuals see that cultural difference doesn't mean value conflict, and that cooperation with those who are different can yield real, tangible benefits for everyday life. It would be prudent not to increase the tensions by more immigration, as one does not put out fires with petrol!
If Western nations want multiculturalism to succeed, an almost impossible task now, they need to promote shared civic values and everyday trust-building, not just multicultural marketing. Otherwise, we risk turning what should be a social burden into a fault line of fracture, which is what we are now seeing.
The liberal globalist idea, that diverse societies are a strength was always just a smoke screen for mass immigration.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/britons-dont-trust-people-with-different-values