‼️Next month: Great workshop in Beijing on AI and online communication 👇👇

Just published in *Mind*:

Like sexy Kant

We conclude discussing epistemic blame. We try to strike a balance between theories placing excessive responsibility on laypeople (who can't really be faulted for trusting rogue experts) and theories that exculpate irresponsible conduct (like falling for obvious epistemic traps).

⚠️ Rogue experts and trespassers are particularly dangerous because they display ALL the markers of expertise—credentials, track records, publications. This makes it very hard for laypeople to realise they're unreliable. Yet, existing literature largely ignores rogue expertise.

4️⃣ EPISTEMIC TRESPASSERS: Genuine experts who make authoritative claims OUTSIDE their domain of expertise.
Example: Shiva Ayyadurai, MIT-trained engineer who leveraged his credentials to make false claims about COVID treatments, despite lacking virology expertise. 🧠

3️⃣ ROGUE EXPERTS (our new category!): These ARE genuine experts who systematically offer unreliable testimony / misrepresent the evidence.
Example: Robert Malone, MD involved in mRNA vaccine development, who spread unwarranted claims about vaccine safety, notably on Joe Rogan's podcast. 🧪

2️⃣ PSEUDO-EXPERTS: People who claim expertise they don't possess in fields where legitimate expertise exists.
Example: Del Bigtree, TV producer with zero medical training who became a leading anti-vaccine voice during COVID by positioning himself as a medical authority. 🎭

1️⃣ PSEUDO-SCIENTISTS: Those who claim scientific expertise in domains where there's no legitimate scientific knowledge.
Example: David M. Jacobs, history professor who claims to study "alien abductions" using hypnosis to retrieve "memories" of alien breeding 👽🍆 programs.

We are interested in why scientific misconceptions persist despite abundant counterevidence 🤔
The popular narrative: people just don't trust experts.
The alternative view: people often DO trust experts, just the WRONG ones.
Our paper reviews some EPISTEMIC TRAPS that lead people astray:

🔬 NEW PAPER with Michel Croce: "Misplaced trust in expertise: pseudo-experts and unreliable experts"
Preprint here: philpapers.org/rec/CROMTI-2