What else can you do? Really? How can you trust or distrust expert advice without the technical knowledge?

Most of the reasons for distrust I've seen have basically boiled down to "I don't like what the expert is saying" or "They were wrong once, obviously all experts are wrong about everything".

It’s definitely a soft skill, but roughly for me it’s: - assumes good faith - doesn’t attempt to control others - doesn’t show disdain of their out group

Obviously knowing somebody personally makes this much easier.