The Death of Expertise Has Been Exaggerated

Posted May 9, 2022

External Article: The Death of Expertise Has Been Exaggerated

Research by Professor Diana Hicks, Assistant Professor Omar I. Asensio, and Ph.D. students Matteo Zullo and Ameet Doshi of the School of Public Policy was the subject of a commentary published in the May edition of Physics Today.

The article details the team's research into how the public uses downloads of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus reports, finding strong demand among everyday people for sophisticated scientific research.

An excerpt:

The research conducted by Hicks and her collaborators illuminates the rewards for successfully engaging the public. In the concluding paragraph of their paper, they write: “The overall impression is of adults motivated to reach higher, seek out the most credible sources, engage with challenging material, and use it to improve the services they provide or learn more about the world they live in.”