Credible Sociologists work with ranking PhD Statisticians and follow statistical designs that are scientific.
Not all sociologists but the ones that matter and the ones that get published in first tier journals all have formidable statistics that are useful and recognized as authoritative.
The author of this study is one of the credible ones because of his statistical sample design and approach. Because he is in the category of those with respected reputation he will not sacrifice it to leftists that his and threaten about his findings. His type of character is surprisingly prevalent at prestigious universities.
Second and third tier social science writers really don’t matter except to leftist journals. The reason they are not first tier is because of the university they are attached to and because their ‘science’ is simply not respected. Therefore, they can only get published in journals that are lower in rank and not authoritative.
The question is who does the media quote? How many judges are familiar with the rankings of researchers and publications? If our judiciary and congress are any examples, few appear to have any passing familiarity with the Constitution, much less with the field of social science research, as well as its limitations.