I have research-intensive degrees, both bachelors and masters, and taught college level classes where students had to learn the basics of research and source evaluation. For me research, academic research, is second nature.
If only that were true for everyone.
In an age where the value of experts has been undermined and the sources of information often compromised you hear people yelling “do your research!” when I doubt one in a hundred even knowns what that means.
The common definition is “creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge.” I dare say the key word there is systematic. Random surfing the internet using biased search terms is not research, it is little more than proof texting.
If you are going to do this you need to find a representative sample of quality information on your subject, preferably from good authoritative sources. You need to know who published it, who wrote it, what else they have done, when it was done, and who paid for it. Everyone has bias, bias is OK as long as you are aware of it and what the goal might be. You need to read all of it, more than once, until you can summarize the contents coherently. Then you begin to look for patterns, areas where the information intersects. At the very least you do this so you can confirm or deny an assertion, and best you use this to build into new ideas. This takes time and effort and often money.
This is more than most people want to do. Honestly, while I think anyone can be trained to do it, it is more than most people can do as is.
So what is the alternative? Trust the experts. Real experts. People who have spent a significant amount of their life studying the subject, living with it and interacting with it. People who are recognized by their peers as experts. In most circumstances if you have one or two people promoting an idea that is contrary to most experts then those people are probably wrong. Not always, maybe, but most of the time.
Unless you are willing to take the time and effort to do the research perhaps trust the people who have. It took decades but some of us have done the research to give an intelligent expert opinion in our fields.
Just remember that old advice your mother probably gave you: “Consider the source.”