Reminds me of a quote about asymptotic limits whereby a specialist keeps specializing until he knows everything about nothing while a generalist keeps generalizing until he knows nothing about everything.
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I also think there is the tendency for the specialist to make category errors. Basically, they think that “since this method of analyzing a problem works in my specialty, if I apply it in this other area, it will also work.” Since we are almost all specialists in some area (even if the area is being a housewife, or a writer, or whatever it is that we do to make our way in the world) category errors abound. Empirical evidence to test a hypothesis is not as available in the social “sciences” as it is in the physical sciences for example. Reasoning a priori, by analogy, historically, and within a conservative framework given unintended consequences and the difficulty of isolating variables would not do a research scientist much good in their profession; but for a legal scholar, a historian, a voter, a politician, there is much more value to a different style of reasoning. Similarly, the housewife that reasons that because familial love and family harmony is worth a sacrifice on the part of the family members, sacrificing a principle to maintain political harmony may also be worth it may be applying their “specialized” knowledge in the wrong way or in the wrong category. Reading my last sentence I realize that I’m babbling now . . . : )