Many of us wish that we'd live in a meritocracy, where the experts have the last say and help the society take the right choices. After all, that's part of the reason we love the internet, and the biggest reason why we would like the media to present information and science accurately, and not dumbed down. But believing the data is different than by reason of them being authority.

Nevertheless, the majority of us will, in fact, do completely unreasonable stuff when told by authority. Not only have we all heard of the old excuse from soldiers that committed war crimes and atrocities: "I was just following orders.", there's also countless cases of sexual and violent abuse that didn't come to light because the person committing them was in a position of authority towards the victim(s).

But "scientists" of any denomination wield a similar power over hearts and minds, even those already grown-up and even those not conditioned to obey like soldiers. I'm sure many of you have already heard of the Milgram experiment, in which Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram showed that more than 60% of all participants - highly educated students - could easily be brought to inflict (unbeknownst to them only simulated) harm on other people, just for a simple experiment. That's some pretty high level of devotion, arguably as high as some cult leaders enjoy.

But you know who else wields this kind of influence? The media. Or, to be more precise: The Telly. French documentary filmer Christophe Nick recreated the Milgram experiment with average French guys who thought they participated in a game show imaginatively called "La Zone Xtrême" - "The Danger Zone". The role of host was played by the well-known Tania Young (French link), and she and the guy to be "shocked" were the only participant let in on the spiel.

Most (80%!) of the unwitting participants had little qualms to send up to 480 Volts of shock into the victim for every false answer of a question. Even cries for mercy and an end of the show were answered with more shocks, because the host's authority told them, it was okay.

A shocking truth (pardon the pun), isn't it? The media tells us what to do, and most of us will follow, if it sounds plausible - and even when it doesn't. That's why the Appeal to Authority is such a bad move, and that is why you need to see the data, not the claim, when making a rational choice.