Measuring epistemic authority: studies of politicians and professors

Abstract

Two studies assessed the perception of epistemic authority (denoting a source of information which has a determinative influence on the acquisition of knowledge) by means of a scale (Epistemic Authority Scale) which was constructed for this purpose. The first study showed that individuals perceive political leaders with similar political orientations as greater epistemic authorities than political leaders with different political orientations. In addition, the study investigated the reasons used by the subjects to explain reliance or lack of reliance on political leaders. In general, the responses showed that leaders' expressed opinions and characteristics were important determinants in epistemic authority selection. The second study found that students of statistics departments have a greater tendency to perceive their professors as epistemic authorities in their disciplinary knowledge than students of psychology departments, while the latter are more likely than the former to perceive their professors as epistemic authorities in general knowledge domains. Analysis of the Reason scores for reliance on the professors in the two departments reveals that expertness received the highest ratings.

Epistemic authority of professors and researchers: differential perceptions by students from two cultural-educational systems

“…This sensitivity to the discipline of teachers has been corroborated in a few studies, such as Raviv et al (1993Raviv et al ( , 2003. Participants in Raviv et al (1993, study 2) were university students enrolled in psychology or statistics.…”

“…Studies have demonstrated that students consider teachers as epistemic authorities on their own discipline (e.g., Raviv et al 1993Raviv et al , 2003. This means that teachers are believed to provide reliable information on the topics about which they are knowledgeable.…”

“…Earlier studies (conducted in the small power distance culture Israel) report that students are sensitive to the discipline of the teacher (e.g., Raviv et al 1993Raviv et al , 2003. French students do not put themselves in a position to critically assess their teachers (cf.…”

“…The study operationalizes epistemic authorities as professors and researchers that participants do not know personally. If students rate their own teachers (e.g., Raviv et al 1993), the likeability of the teacher may play a role. Based on the literature on culture and education presented above, the following hypothesis is formulated: H1: French students differentiate less between professors and researchers whose discipline is or is not relevant to the claim they underline than Dutch students By investigating this hypothesis, the present study contributes to the understanding of how students assess professors and researchers as epistemic authorities, and of the extent to which students' cultural-educational background may affect these assessments.…”

Managing uncertainty: Forest professionals’ claim and epistemic authority in the face of societal and climate change

“…Thus, we observe the cognitive destabilization of expert claims, which has left political bodies and expert communities pondering how to develop a more robust -socially accepted and publicly trusted -expertise (Lofstedt, 2005;van Asselt and Renn, 2011). In addition , there are arguments for the importance of developing a new type of expertise, in which epistemic authority (that is, a social position for authoritatively delivering recommendations within a specific domain) is negotiated and developed in interaction with the organizations it aims to influence (Raviv et al, 1993;Pfadenhauer, 2006). Expertise is still considered pivotal in transforming uncertainties into governable risks (Lidskog and Sjödin, 2015).…”