Do the Experts Know Anything?
Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, for example, can fairly be seen as a rejection of expertise in all its forms. And long before the Trump phenomenon, critics in the U.S. were gleefully attacking the expert consensus on everything from climate change to vaccinations.
.. 1. Experts are wrong a lot. This seems especially true lately when it comes to predicting election results (cases in point: Brexit and the U.S. Republican primaries). But there have been other recent examples, including the collapse of the scientific consensus that fat and cholesterol are really bad for you. The inability of most macroeconomists to admit the possibility of a global financial crisis before one struck in 2008 has to count as a big expert fail as well.
.. 2. Experts are elitist.
.. People who feel more distant from experts may find it harder to trust them, even when they’re right. But it also probably affects experts’ judgment.
.. 3. Nonexperts can be pretty susceptible to nonsense.
.. Most people don’t have time to develop that sort of informed skepticism — which is one reason why experts are so essential.