Experts' Values Drive Trust

When experts share similar political or cultural values that are distant from the general public, their technical judgments are perceived as political, weakening public trust. This dynamic makes it harder to build broad support for policies with technical components, because disagreement looks like a values dispute rather than a factual one. — If true, rebuilding trust requires diversifying expert communities or explicitly separating technical claims from value judgments, changing how governments and institutions communicate on science‑adjacent policy.