My professional experience seemed to indicate that many individuals have extreme difficulty sorting through data quality when it comes to making good decisions (advice from an acquaintance carries the same weight as a CDC well-researched publication, for example). There also seems to be a strong tendency to believe that one's own information lack (or ignorance, to use a more negative term) is every bit as valid as intelligently-derived high quality knowledge. Then there's the idea that beliefs (without evidence supporting those beliefs) are exactly the same as knowledge based on observable phenomena. A lack of knowledge about the scientific method and it's power is also part of the equation. I could go on but it's hopelessly pointless, or so it seems most days.