It's a classic problem with several highly educated fields. People think because they're well educated in one topic they are more able to understand things as a whole.

I used to work in IT for a hospital. We had literal doctors breaking CD drives because they wouldn't accept they weren't collapsible cup holders. If we were trying to walk them through something simple like turning the monitor on we'd ask for a nurse to be put on because we found doctors would just say it isn't working, never press the button. They thought they were smarter than us.

I've learned to trust people in their very specific field, and nothing else. The rest of the world just hasn't learned that lesson. This means any dumb idea someone has when they're highly educated in STEM they're likely going to convince themselves is good, because they're smart.