Trend Trend B: Changing values and declining trust in institutions

Summary

Digital transformation and generational turnover are reshaping traditional values and spreading individualism and pluralism, even as trust in government, the media and other established institutions weakens. Information asymmetry, fake news and algorithmic bias make social consensus harder to reach and erode the capacity of society to hold together. The trend belongs to the megatrend of social change and value diversification. It groups issues on the diversification of cultural production and consumption, shifting perceptions of traditional values, the rise of new governance systems and a crisis of information trust with entrenched structural bias. Members of the public named it among their priority trends in the 2025 survey, but it did not make the combined list of driver candidates.