How is the rise of self-advocacy challenging traditional notions of authority?

ReD’s Ariel Abonizio in conversation with Lore Oxford, researcher, cultural theorist and strategist leading brand strategy and cultural intelligence at Reddit.

Ariel Abonizio In our work at ReD, we’re noticing shifts in trust and authority across industries like politics, healthcare, and branding, with traditional authorities being questioned and new voices gaining influence. How have you seen these shifts playing out?

Lore Oxford If we zoom out a little, we can track back where much of this began. One of the earliest megatrends I tracked in my career was about how everybody gained a voice in the digital era: the proliferation of social platforms gave everyone with an internet connection a way to coalesce, and identify where the status quo wasn't working for them not just as individuals, but as cohorts. This happened at a human level, first. People started realising that taboo topics like money or mental health weren’t actually anything to be ashamed of, regardless of what their parents or grandparents might believe. They started realising that they could be beautiful even if they didn’t look the same as the people on billboards or in magazines.

We also started to see authority challenged on a larger scale. At a commercial level, web 2.0 has been defined by companies like Venmo and Airbnb shifting the paradigm on the financial and hospitality industries respectively. Their successes proved that traditional institutions had got it wrong, and that there was a better way of doing things. And even better still, challenging authority actually paid off.

Meanwhile, trust in political authority was taking a major hit, crescendoing around 2016, with Trump and Brexit. This had major implications. According to the Edelman Trust barometer, two-thirds of people still don't believe that government leaders, business leaders or journalists are telling the truth. So, trust in traditional authority has depleted in recent years, while consistently, those who challenged authority have often been rewarded. In that context, people have often been looking to each other to find trust and expertise instead. 

Ariel Abonizio Is there an industry that you think best exemplifies these shifts in what authority looks and feels like?

Lore Oxford I think medicine is an interesting example, especially in the States, where medicine is a monetised industry. We're seeing this rise of self-advocacy, and people not necessarily trusting their doctors. This isn’t necessarily because they don't think that they're an authority in their space, but because they don't always trust that doctors have their best interests at heart. This highlights an interesting tension between power and authority – if you can't trust the institutions, can you trust the doctors that work for them? In this context, we're seeing more people start to advocate for themselves, do their own research, and – for better or worse – look for people who are more relatable. Authority is often traded off for familiarity or reliability.

Authority is often traded off for familiarity or reliability.

Ariel Abonizio It’s quite an interesting contradiction: one could argue we have better access to authoritative information than we’ve ever had before, and yet we are the ones being put in the position of being experts ourselves. In industries that have historically been defined by expert figures, like healthcare and finance, everyday people are now being encouraged to ‘do their own research’.

Lore Oxford Right. A large part of the decline in trust in the last decade is this idea of post-truthiness. And coming to the realisation that people’s truth is, in certain contexts, subjective. In the same sense, I think authority is also often subjective – even in terms of what you consider good authority or authority that you trust. It’s going to depend on everything from your financial background, your relationship with your parents, your relationship with your teachers when you were a kid, your cultural heritage, your gender. There are so many different things that contribute to the way that you perceive and accept authority. And I think that's something quite uncomfortable, because people like there to be one correct answer. That’s what the promise of AI is supposedly going to bring, right? Collecting all the information in the world so you can ask a question and get one right answer. That’s not really how it works, though.

Ariel Abonizio Perhaps part of the reason people have lost trust in traditional forms of authority is by virtue of not feeling like traditional institutions have made any real progress on critical matters like climate change, structural inequality, and our various epidemics. As the linear notion of progress comes crumbling down, so does the trust we have in these authorities.

Lore Oxford Totally. And I think it's difficult to even begin to fathom notions of progress, because the issues we need to discuss are often talked about on a human scale, when actually they’re so much more systemic and unwieldy. The Atlantic published an article a while back that talked about a study where a large portion of people felt like the economy was getting worse, but the majority didn't think it was getting worse for them. It was called “Everything's on Fire, but I'm Fine.” And that mentality is where we are – this idea that we can orient ourselves or understand progress at scale seems almost futile. Especially, ironically, when we’ve lost faith in so many of the outlets we previously entrusted with informing us. I do wonder whether there's a way to flip that narrative and think about how we can build trust through looking at what progress has been made.

I think authority is also often subjective – even in terms of what you consider good authority or authority that you trust.

Ariel Abonizio That begs the question of the path forward for authority. How might traditional institutions regain authority? When you think about companies and institutions, what do you think they need to know about how authority works today?

Lore Oxford I think it is obviously very nuanced in different spaces. It means something very different for a luxury brand versus a financial brand versus a medical institution. So, across the board, regardless of the industry; the primary focus needs to be understanding your audience, who they are, what they value, and what kind of authority will work for them. For example, in medicine, what's interesting is how different medical providers brand themselves – not necessarily to be relatable, but to appeal to a specific demographic or audience. Being an authority to this audience rather than trying to appeal to everyone. For example, Tia is a women's health clinic, it's a PCP. What's interesting about it is it's specifically targeting younger generations of women. It exerts authority by acknowledging menstrual health, ensuring that the people who go to those clinics know that they won't be ignored when talking about mood swings in relation to their cycle or other health conditions that might relate to their cycle. Their whole notion of authority is built on relevance. And it’s saying we are still doctors, we still have all the credentials, but we also understand you. They’re not necessarily relatable, but they are relevant. Maybe that’s the future of authority.

Ariel Abonizio In some ways, AI goes in contradiction to some of the things that we’ve spoken about here. It goes against the idea of authenticity and relatability that makes today’s experts personable. AI seems to be almost the opposite, an impersonal answer to a potentially impersonal question. What role do you think AI will play in our shifting notions of authority?

Lore Oxford I think it depends, again, on the context. When do we need expertise – the output or hard data that gets the job done – and when do we need to trust a person in the position of authority? For example, there are a load of investment tools that use AI to invest or reinvest your cash based on whatever's going on in the market. And before you might have needed an expert financial advisor to do that, but with AI you don’t. That's one form of expertise where for some people, the tool is enough. And again, some people will likely still want a person. Again, part of it is about audience segmentation. But I also think it’s about understanding that AI is being used not to become an expert, but a tool through which expertise can be filtered and understood – at least not yet. I’m sure there will be some future iteration of this, maybe a humanoid AI financial expert. But I’m intrigued to see how that plays out, given that AI’s perceived safety is currently couched in its role as an assistant – a role that’s fundamentally at odds with authority. 

I think in some ways, we're about to fall into an era of existential horror where we don't know what's real and what isn't

Ariel Abonizio Final question, is there anything that excites you more than anything when it comes to the future of authority?

Lore Oxford I think this notion of relevance is most interesting to me. And this idea of figuring out how to find forms of authority who are more tailored to your experiences. For example, in the context of finance, having more financial institutions that service a more diverse audience’s needs: that feels like a good thing for the economy, a good thing for everyone. I'm also just interested to see how we're going to navigate the next ten years. Because to your point, one of the things that we talked about earlier which is related to AI is the sheer volume of content that’s being created in real-time. One of the greatest challenges of our era is figuring out how to navigate all of the content out there to find what it is that you need. I think we're going to face more fake content and scams. When we think about the juxtaposition between authority and relatability. That's also the heartland of the scam. I think in some ways, we're about to fall into an era of existential horror where we don't know what's real and what isn't. And I think in that context, everyone's anchors will be different. Finding people that you do trust or experts that you can rely on, that's going to be so valuable and needed to navigate the chaos. 

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