> Epistemics > Credentialism > arghXiv:2506.00742
Timing and Relevance of Credential Disclosure in Asymmetric Exchanges
Abstract: We coded 903 exchanges for the point at which a participant first disclosed a professional credential. Disclosure occurred at a median of 14 messages, and in 82 per cent of cases the credential was in a field unrelated to the matter under dispute. Relevance had no measurable effect on the disclosure's persuasive weight. Neither condition produced one that could be measured at all. A refusal grounded in the asker's standing is a negatio ad hominem, and one grounded in the question being too elementary to answer an infra dignitatem; both as arghXiv:2512.11487 defines them. The disclosure recorded here precedes one or the other in 197 of the 903 exchanges.