Status Distrust of Scientific Experts

verfasst von

Hugh Desmond

Abstract

Distrust in scientific experts can be surprisingly stubborn, persisting despite evidence supporting the experts’ views, demonstrations of their competence, or displays of good will. This stubborn distrust is often viewed as a manifestation of irrationality. By contrast, this article proposes a logic of “status distrust”: low-status individuals are objectively vulnerable to collective decision-making, and can justifiably distrust high-status scientific experts if they are not confident that the experts do not have their best interests at heart. In phenomena of status distrust, social status is thus an indicator of distrust, and this has wider implications for the literatures on trust in science and on expert communication.

Externe Organisation(en)

Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerpen)

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Social epistemology

Band

36

Seiten

586-600

Anzahl der Seiten

15

ISSN

0269-1728

Publikationsdatum

2022

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Philosophie, Sozialwissenschaften (insg.)

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2022.2104758 (Zugang: Unbekannt)