Croce, Michel and Marsili, Neri (2025) Misplaced Trust in Expertise: Pseudo-Experts and Unreliable Experts. Social Epistemology. ISSN 0269-1728
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Abstract
The persistence of scientific misconceptions is often attributed to a decline in trust in experts. Against this simplistic picture, we emphasize that misplaced trust in expertise plays a crucial role in sustaining such misconceptions: even laypeople actively seeking expert guidance may nonetheless place their trust in unreliable sources. The paper identifies two main kinds of ’epistemic traps’ that are relevant to this phenomenon. In addition to fake experts who flaunt competence they lack (like pseudoexperts and pseudo-scientists), we emphasise the importance of unreliable experts, who possess relevant credentials but systematically offer unreliable testimony. The resulting picture clashes with the commonplace idea that laypeople bear significant epistemic blame for endorsing misconceptions. Even responsible agents can be misled by unreliable experts who display legitimate credentials: the less evident the source’s unreliability, the less responsible is the agent for being misled.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | |||||||||
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| Keywords: | Experts Deference Markers of expertise Pseudo-experts Pseudo-science Trust Scientific misconceptions Credentials Rogue experts | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Science vs. Pseudoscience General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science |
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| Depositing User: | Dr Neri Marsili | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 09 Jun 2025 13:27 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 09 Jun 2025 13:27 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 25632 | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Social Epistemology | |||||||||
| Official URL: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02691... | |||||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1080/02691728.2025.2491104 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Science vs. Pseudoscience General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science |
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| Date: | June 2025 | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 0269-1728 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25632 |
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