The dark side of belief in Covid-19 scientists and scientific evidence

In this paper co-authored by Paul, the authors show that there are risks to elevating Covid-19 scientists on a pedestal. People can and should trust scientists to provide answers about the pandemic; for instance, test the effectiveness of vaccines or quantify the threat Covid-19 to different demographic groups. However, to reduce the uncertainty during the pandemic, people might place too much faith in scientists. Specifically, when people go beyond the desirable deference to the expertise, they can trust science so strongly that they believe that the scientists who guide the pandemic are the only ones who can decide the moral response to the pandemic.  Paul said: “"Showing deference to scientific expertise is helpful for encouraging collective action, but can be harmful when it leads people to blindly follow rules without proper regard for for the full welfare effects of those rules." You can read the paper here.