Exactly, leave it to the experts

 

This was a great column by Monica Hesse in the Washington Post. Unfortunately, I can only provide excerpts of it here.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shows the fallacy of ‘doing your own research’
Has he even looked into the origins of the phrase?

"Unless, of course, what Kennedy meant by “do your own research” was “faff around on the internet until you find someone saying something you like,” in which case, sure. You can probably knock that out in an afternoon.

“Do your own research” is an insidious phrase. It’s the brother of “just asking questions,” the cousin of “for argument’s sake.” It sounds objectively neutral. Nobody is saying you should believe their research, just your own — nobody is pushing an agenda. But it is based on an unspoken shared understanding that the official story is suspect. That research by experts is a scam. That there are things that nobody wants you to know. In 2023, University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan researchers published a study that found that when people felt positively about “doing their own research,” they were more likely to believe misinformation about the pandemic and to mistrust scientific institutions in general."

You don't say. 

Monica also says this:

"I wasn’t sure, when I started writing this column, whether my goal was going to be to take a swipe at RFK Jr. — a nepo baby wastrel who is busy promising to Make America Healthy Again while cutting back HHS programs that assist minority and underserved populations — or whether it was going to be to trace the linguistic history of a four-word phrase — a phrase that sounds like a celebration of intellectual exploration and is really an invitation to divorce yourself from reality and then lash out at the people who try to bring you back."

There's a whole lot of bad research out there too in the social media world, done by people who are assuming the conclusion and then finding a way to "analyze" the data so it bears that conclusion out. Some of them are glib and convincing about it, with a modicum of education that lends them veracity. (Sadly, a whole lot of this bad research pertains to climate change.)

It doesn't make them right. Sadly, they find an audience that wants to believe them, and commonly does.

The loss of our trust in experts is a loss for all of us, and it's causing an increasing amount of problems.  I still trust the experts -- and in some fields, I am one.

Now, here's a good short article to consult.

In quest of quality: 9 ways to assess scientific accuracy

There's a nice conclusion here:

"Summing everything up, know that it’s totally okay to have a difference of opinion with your great-uncle Leslie. However, remember that spreading misinformation can be harmful. Be aware of author bias and transparency and appraise all the data before reaching conclusions. So, keep an open mind, keep it objective, and keep it honest. You’re on your way towards becoming an informed judge of quality science."