The author is a friend from my Google Plus days.
What a person thinks is convincing is also dependent on what they know of heuristics. The say-so of an authority is often worth considering, but isn’t always trustworthy. To function in the world of today, some amount of faith in the words of scientists is necessary, as no-one has the time to obtain first-hand corroboration of every finding in every field. Finding out which kinds of publications are worth trusting is becoming a science in itself.