In matters of layman discussion, would you trust their input more than someone with no formal education in physics?
To go with a more practical example, say a news report comes out that some new exercise called joopies are better than burpees. Then say someone with a B.S. in Exercise Science says the article is wrong and says burpees are better than joopies. Without either peer reviewed research nor an expert with a Ph.D. (or other doctorate) to weigh in on the issue, would you think that joopies are better, that burpees are better, or that you don't have enough evidence to decide either are better.
And if you would recommend the third option as a matter of course, would the same hold true if we replace joopies with staring at a clock?
Thus far the discussion has focused on non-Ph.D. posing as field expert and coming up with original research. However, if you’re trying to evaluate some pop science in media (which is likely garbage, so always start with negative points) and have a friend or family member with a B.S. to talk to, they’re often qualified to debunk a large class of bullshit. For instance, if there’s a news report of a perpetual motion machine, and a physics major tells you it’s obviously bullshit because it violates the first and/or second law of thermodynamics, they’re likely correct. In less obvious scenarios, hopefully they would try to track down the source and try to make sense of it, and tell you if the source is garbage (in case they’re qualified to evaluate it), and/or if the source is misrepresented in media. This isn’t always possible and assumes a humble person who don’t brag about things they don’t understand, though; if the person is known to be boastful then you probably won’t place too much trust on them anyway.
The above is probably more useful for hard sciences though. Honestly when it comes to psychology I take theories endorsed by actual field experts with a grain of salt.
>Thus far the discussion has focused on non-Ph.D. posing as field expert and coming up with original research.
I had thought we had already diverged from that when we were discussing noise filtering. In regards to original research in the actual field, I agree the standard must be tougher and personally wouldn't depend upon a single expert or peer reviewed paper to accept something as truth, especially in the social sciences. In physics, I assume any ground breaking results would be quickly redone by independent researchers and a consensus for or against would follow.
To go with a more practical example, say a news report comes out that some new exercise called joopies are better than burpees. Then say someone with a B.S. in Exercise Science says the article is wrong and says burpees are better than joopies. Without either peer reviewed research nor an expert with a Ph.D. (or other doctorate) to weigh in on the issue, would you think that joopies are better, that burpees are better, or that you don't have enough evidence to decide either are better.
And if you would recommend the third option as a matter of course, would the same hold true if we replace joopies with staring at a clock?