Professionals conceal their backstage practice to hide the gap between expertise and the expert.

Evidence

Control of the threshold between the frontand backstage is part of the essence of professionalism. Why do experts keep concealed from others a good deal of what they do? One reason is quite straightforward: the exercise of expertise often requires specialised environments, as well as concerted mental concentration, which would be difficult to achieve in public view. But there are other reasons. There is a difference between expertise and the expert, which those who work at access points ordinarily wish to minimise as far as possible. Experts can get things wrong, by misinterpreting or being ignorant of expertise they are presumed to possess. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 207

Categorization

• XREF: Stevens’s absolute refusal of a backstage self—his denial of anything beyond the butler role—is the tragic extreme of this frontstage/backstage control. — connects to: Expert professionals can perpetuate unfounded beliefs through their actions. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 1602; Broadcast professionalism functions as a defensive retreat from contested content — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 872; Climate and health experts also hide financial ties, making capture profession-wide — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 582

Broader Connections

• Expert professionals can perpetuate unfounded beliefs through their actions. #expands (0.70) — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 1602
• Broadcast professionalism functions as a defensive retreat from contested content #qualifies (0.55) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 872