MEASURING EPISTEMIC AUTHORITY - STUDIES OF POLITICIANS AND PROFESSORS

Two studies assessed the perception of epistemic authority (denoting a source of information which has a determinative influence on the acqu isition of knowledge) by means of a scale (Epistemic Authority Scale) which was constructed for this purpose. The first study showed that in dividuals perceive political leaders with similar political orientatio ns as greater epistemic authorities than political leaders with differ ent political orientations. In addition, the study investigated the re asons used by the subjects to explain reliance or lack of reliance on political leaders. In general, the responses showed that leaders' expr essed opinions and characteristics were important determinants in epis temic authority selection. The second study found that students of sta tistics departments have a greater tendency to perceive their professo rs as epistemic authorities in their disciplinary knowledge than stude nts of psychology departments, while the latter are more likely than t he former to perceive their professors as epistemic authorities in gen eral knowledge domains. Analysis of the Reason scores for reliance on the professors in the two departments reveals that expertness received the highest ratings.