Do you trust experts?

I’m in the process of becoming an expert in a small part of a particular field. It’s fun, and I’m excited about it, but an unwelcome byproduct has been that I get really frustrated when people won’t defer to my opinion or when they excessively question my judgment in matters directly relating to my field.

I’ve tried to extend this courtesy to other experts by generally trusting their judgment, but am occasionally surprised by their….lack of expertise (I may have discovered the world’s worst gynecologist).

At the same time, other experts I encounter shock me with their brilliance pretty much daily.

So what do you think? Do you automatically trust experts? Warily trust experts? Does it depend on the expert? Do you vet the expert and then trust his/her judgment? Are you an inherent skeptic? Are you more skeptical of experts?

When your opinion diverges from an expert’s, how do you decide who to trust?