APAC Trust Splits: Income Gap Widens to 16 Points

Two in three people across Asia-Pacific say they are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone with different values, backgrounds, or information sources. That is the headline finding from the Edelman Trust Barometer 2026, released after surveying 34,000 people across 28 countries in October-November 2025.

The report gives this pattern a name: an "insular trust mindset." And it says this mindset is actively reshaping the operating environment for businesses across the region.

The implications for any brand, foreign or domestic, are hard to overstate.

Trust Is Splitting Along Income Lines

The most striking data point in the APAC findings is the income-based trust gap. In 2012, the difference in trust levels between high-income and low-income respondents in the region was seven points. In 2026, that gap stands at 16 points. The APAC Trust Index sits at 70 among high-income respondents and just 54 among low-income respondents.

That divide has more than doubled in 14 years. And it is not a blip driven by a single recession or crisis. Edelman frames it as a structural fracture, one that marketers and communicators cannot smooth over with a well-crafted campaign.

The implication is direct: a message that resonates with a relatively affluent, open-minded audience in Singapore may barely register with a low-income audience in the same city.

Foreign Brands Face a Built-In Disadvantage

The second major finding is the gap between how much people trust domestic companies versus foreign ones. This gap exists in every APAC market surveyed. The numbers are significant.

Japan shows the widest split, at 29 points in favor of domestic companies. Singapore and South Korea both sit at 28 points. Malaysia is at 18 points, China at 17, India at 15, and Thailand at 14.

These are not soft preference signals. They are effectively built-in deficits that any foreign brand carries before a single impression is served or a single press release is sent.

"The APAC findings show that trust is becoming more selective," said Rakesh Thukral, Edelman's CEO for Asia Pacific. "When optimism weakens and concerns about falsehoods rise, people place greater weight on what feels known and close to home."

Four Forces Feeding Insularity

Edelman identifies four drivers behind this shift, and each one reinforces the others.

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The first is a preference for the familiar. In every APAC market surveyed, domestic companies are trusted more than foreign ones. That preference is hardening, not softening.

The second is an inward-facing information environment. Globally, the number of people who regularly get information from sources with a different political viewpoint fell by six points in a single year. Audiences are self-selecting into bubbles, which narrows the channels available for any brand trying to reach across demographics.

The third driver is the widening income divide described above. The mass-class split means brands cannot treat APAC as a single addressable market with a unified message.

The fourth is declining optimism. In Singapore, only 31% of respondents believe the next generation will be better off than today. That is an 11-point year-on-year drop. Double-digit declines in optimism were also recorded in Thailand, India, and China. When people feel pessimistic about the future, they retreat toward the familiar. That retreat is what feeds insularity.

The Insular Mindset Penalty Is Steep

Among people with an insular mindset, the trust penalty is severe. When those individuals perceive an institution's leadership to be different from themselves (in terms of values, background, or identity), they rate that institution's trustworthiness 28 to 31 points lower than someone with an open mindset would.

That gap is not bridgeable with a rebrand. It requires a different strategy entirely.

The report points to employers as one of the few institutions capable of bridging this divide effectively. Among institutions tested, employers show the smallest gap between what people expect them to do and what they actually deliver when it comes to building trust between groups. Some 54% of employees say their employer is doing well at this.

The potential payoff is measurable. When low-income respondents see institutions bridging trust actively, their average trust score rises by 18 points, enough to bring it on par with high-income respondents.

"Organisations will need to focus more on bridging trust across divides by building safe spaces for dialogue, understanding and shared progress," Thukral added.

For communications leaders in Asia-Pacific, the 2026 data is not an abstract warning. It is a map of where audience trust actually lives and a signal that reaching across income, value, and identity lines will require more than messaging. It will require proof.