The global economy is inundated with experts, ‘dispassionate, objective, rational’ technocrats who claim to be able to solve all our problems.  In Trust Us, We’re Experts(New York: Putnam, 2001), S. Rampton and J. Stauber unmask this misconception by showing how the public is continuously being manipulated, how consent/disapproval is being created, through the Public Relations (PR) industry. It uses strategies like the “third party technique” (where ‘independent’ experts reassure consumers about producers’ services/products) and “information glut” (where the public is jammed with so many statistics and information that it gives up trying to sort it all out). Indeed, the bulk of research studies published, opinions in the newspaper, and the interviews given on TV are produced by ‘experts’ hired by companies who need to sell a product (chemical pollutants, cigarettes, ‘wonder’ drugs, etc.) or to generate a good public image.

We need to support learners in unlearning this ‘cult of expertism’ as it undermines our ability to make good decisions for our lives and our communities. Our blind trust in and reliance on experts also guarantees that corporations/institutions can get away with dangerous practices. Rampton and Stauber encourage us to question/rethink our relationships to authority and the information they spread.  

We can reclaim control over our decision-making by: 

(1) exposing word games and propaganda, 

(2) recognizing science’s uncertainties and limitations, 

(3) paying attention to nuances and details, 

(4) tracing the sources of experts’ funding, 

(5) seeking out more perspectives, and 

(6) following our feelings and recovering faith in our own capacities to know, learn and understand.