We focus on the psychology of how influential people use language to propagate misinformation and lies for their own benefit and how it is possible that so many people actually believe them.

We are ourselves a rich source of expertise regarding many matters. While we don’t always fully appreciate this expertise and often distort or make poor use of this personal expertise, it is there for our use – thanks to our capacity to process at multiples in our brain at the same time, and thanks to the recent expansion in the human brain of an advanced mental processing system (the prefrontal cortex).

It is evident that the roles of leaders, particularly in a fast-changing world, and the roles of leaders, advisors, experts and that of lay-people is unclear leading to distrust, rejection and animosity. There is also the broader challenge that is now found in many societies. This is the widespread disbelief in expertise regarding COVID-19 over the past two years.

The current report provides a summarization of discussions regarding results from the two survey in the first eight reports.