The Alignment Illusion
Across much of the world, there’s been an increase in Google searches like “Tell me about…” or “How do I …”
A majority of people, across all political persuasions, see climate change as man-made. But action is still slow.
The countries in which Zeno Europe is based are the fourth, fifth and sixth wealthiest in the world, and yet their leaders’ approval ratings rank them 88th, 110th and 118th out of 119.
AI is heralded as either the greatest technology humanity has ever forged … or as hastening the end of the world.
Contradictions are everywhere we look. Systems and institutions designed to ensure stability seem fragile. There is an almost universal sense that what we were promised isn’t what we’re getting. Onwards no longer feels necessarily upwards. And no one agrees on anything.
But our sense of self is remarkably robust. So when expectations no longer meet reality, there is a human instinct not to adjust our expectations but to adjust our reality, even if only at the local level, so that our immediate world feels like it makes sense. (See also: cognitive dissonance and the Mandela effect.)
We make sense of a world that doesn’t by narrowing choices, creating rituals and trusting what feels familiar, just to stay functional.
It’s a phenomenon we’re calling the Alignment Illusion and it’s manifesting itself everywhere, in six key ways:
1. The Values Constraint: Values remain central but circumstances make them harder to live by.
2. The Convenience Backlash: When things become effortless they can feel worthless, so we embrace slow, deliberate friction.
3. The Cognitive Crossroads: As AI does more, human judgement becomes more important.
4. The “Better” Trap: Wellness as constant improvement becomes constant pressure becomes seeking genuine balance.
5. The Career Unravelling: A career as a framework for life breaks into something modular and about short-term needs, not long-term loyalty.
6. The Consensus Crisis: When we no longer agree on what’s true and right we can no longer assume anything is shared.
We didn’t get here overnight. In 2024 Zeno identified The Year of Reckoning, as systems people trusted stopped behaving the way they were supposed to. In 2025 we coined The Age of Agency: people taking control (or trying to) but not regaining clarity. And the Alignment Illusion is what happens in a world where, for various reasons, we can’t regain agency.
One risk is that if everyone has their own illusions of alignment, their own ways in which the world makes sense to them, how can we reach any kind of consensus?
Well, we believe there are three things public bodies can do, be they businesses, brands, government, NGOs, or cultural leaders.
Be consistent in your actions over time. Humans are hardwired to respond nehativesly to perceived hypocrisy. Flip-flopping and bandwagon-hopping creates confusion. Inconsistency can feel like dishonesty, whatever the intention; consistent bevaior breeds trust.
Seek to clarify the contradictions your audience lives with – reduce confusion, don’t add commentary. What you don’t say is, truly, as important as what you do.
And create continuity, not campaigns. In an unstable world, make something that gives audiences a home to return to, again and again.
Because when nothing aligns, clarity isn’t a nice to have anymore; it’s how people decide who to trust. And trust is what a divided, contradictory, misaligned world needs to function.
We have a whole data-backed report on the Alignment Illusion and what organisations can do help people resolve it – if you like to find out more, just get in touch.
Read the summary of the report here.
