Authoritative Advice

Here I go again.

There are plenty of articles that assert advice on the authority of some expert, and yet the research that backs up the research is missing. For example, I just read an article about correct posture in front of a computer. But how much of this is real, and how much of this is "Well, this must be how it is". That is, the obviousness of why this is the correct way to sit makes it so. If your neck hurts, well, clearly you have the monitor too high, or off to an angle.

I agree some of it appears to be common sense, but then, there used to be tons of other remedies that really don't make sense except someone just felt the need to assert it.

Still, so many of us want to hear the ring of authority, so we listen, without questioning why. The funny thing is that when there is some scientific basis, then if someone argues against it (say, global warming), we feel there must be a debate, and thus we are willing to say there's not strong evidence, even when we don't explore the issues in depth.

If education teaches us anything, it should teach us how to assess "expert advice".