How to improve expert communication
- Ask different experts different questions. Rather than asking experts: "Will this drug work?', ask some of them, "Is there good evidence about whether the drug will work?" Qualified experts won't always know the answer to the first problem, but will know the answer to the last question.
- Don't just broadcast the most extreme and confident views. The most confident might not be knowledgeable enough to realise they shouldn't be confident.
- Listen to conversations between experts, as they might be more honest about their level of confidence in this context.
- Qualified and knowledgeable experts may be driven to overstate their certainty. To overcome this, the decision-maker should ask better questions and be willing to listen to the less confident experts.
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