Experts

I've noticed a disturbing tend in our society recently...it seems that we have almost deified the phrase "experts". Experts have gone from being normal people just like you or I who happened to be more knowledgeable in a certain area, to being these demi-god like beings who have no face or name, but whose word is law. It should come as no surprise really if you think about it. Where do people get most of their information? Why, the news of course. Does the news like to go into specific detail about which experts said what, the minute details of their experiment, or what others in their field have to say? Not always no. This can be important because minute details like how many participants were in the study or who funded it can help determine accuracy. It is not un heard of for organizations to attempt to set up their own studies in ways that skew their results one way or the other. But regardless, the media does not always cover the minute details. So the result is that we hear about what "experts" have said and what the "study says"--a study of course being one of the integral processes of the scientific method we prize so dearly, we give it considerable weight just because of that authoritativeness--but are not always informed as to who these experts are or any details of the study.

It's possible that overall this has caused us to be slightly more trusting of anything where an "expert" is said to be involved. If I start a sentence using a phrase such as "Experts have recently found" Or "recent studies suggest" I instantly become more credible. Even if I don't really elaborate at all as to who I'm talking about, go into detail about whether there is a consensus within the field regarding this information, or give any additional specifics at all. I believe that this is a fallacious way of looking at things, to be so overly accepting. Sure, maybe society groomed us to be trusting of these words and people, but that doesn't mean we have to stay that way. We as a society should demand more transparency before we take the word of others at face value.

Vocab:
Minute: characterized by painstaking care and detailed examination
Fallacious: based on an incorrect or misleading notion or information