Why is it that we trust some experts and not others?
When it’s time to replace the roof, or repair the plumbing, we might get two estimates before choosing which expert to hire, but once that decision is made, we trust that the job will get done. Without having the knowledge and skills to do the jobs ourselves, most of us have little choice to do anything other than trust those who do. The same holds true for almost every service we pay for – from dry cleaning to dental work, from car repair to chemotherapy – we trust the experts.
Yet, when it comes to things that we have even less chance of having the knowledge and skills to do ourselves, we trust experts less than we trust ourselves.
Scientists are generally agreed about the the nature of global climate change, and yet 51% of Americans think that those scientists are wrong. Cosmologists and astrophysicists know that the universe is about 14 billion years old and that the earth itself is about 4.5 billion years old but a significant percentage of the US population does not trust these experts. (Data on what people believe about the age of the universe is hard to find, but polling about creationism vs. evolution indicates that about 35-40% of Americans think that the human species and the earth itself are very, very young).
If we don’t trust the experts in these areas, it is not because we know better for ourselves, it is because we have too much invested in our preconceived ideas, despite our lack of knowledge.
Perhaps what is most intriguing about this phenomena is that in those areas where we do trust the experts, like dental work and chemotherapy, those experts rely on the same fundamental scientific principles as the experts whom we do not trust.
It follows then, unbelievably, that if we don’t accept the age of the universe, we should reject cancer treatments as well.
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