"When did we start trusting strangers?"

No, contrary to the title, this isn't a piece about online child safety.  It's actually the latest in a splendid series of research publications from Universal McCann aimed at exploring the impacts of the massive changes in communications technologies. We mentioned the previous “Social Media Tracker Wave 3” earlier this year, and “Wave 4” is due for publication soon.

"When did we start trusting strangers?"  is an in-depth study conducted among 17,000 internet users in 29 countries, and examines the growth of consumer recommendation and the tools that drive it across the globe.

The rise of the influence economy stems from key changes in the way that we communicate with friends and family, the creation of an extended friends’ network thanks to channels such as email, SMS, IM and social networks, the tools now available online, and the simple mass of humanity who are using these tools.

The result is that consumers will now trust a stranger's advice via a recommendation or review on an e-commerce site or a blog before they trust paid for marketing, celebrity endorsement and recommendations on a TV show.

This is an extremely comprehensive piece of research (much enlivened by great graphics by the way!), which also highlights interestingly strong variations between markets and product sectors. You can download the report or look at other offerings from Universal McCann’s Next Thing Now site here.