Industrial Ignorance-Making After Tobacco: A Case Review of Six Selected Sectors Based on the 28-Strategy List

This paper investigates whether industries beyond tobacco have engaged in the strategic production of ignorance. It does so by examining the "knowing–saying gap", the documented divergence between what an industry knew or did internally and what it stated publicly. By analyzing six selected sectors (food and beverages, social media, opioids, chemicals, alcohol, and talc) against Goldberg and Vandenberg’s (2021) list of 28 doubt-making strategies, the study identifies a documented gap in all six fields. Twelve strategies are firmly verified, with the suppression of incriminating information and the influence on government and laws being the most recurrent. Additionally, the paper proposes a new theoretical hypothesis outside the standard framework: "manufacturing certainty," highlighting instances where industries sold positive safety claims rather than merely sowing doubt.