Swayed by Personalities

Imām Ibn Taimiyyah, may Allāh have mercy on him, said:

Many people weigh [the strength of] statements by the men [who make them], so when he believes about a man that he is highly respected, he accepts his statements even when they’re false [and] contradict the Book and the Sunnah; in fact, he won’t pay attention to anyone refuting that statement with the Book and the Sunnah; rather, he will treat the one who made [that statement] as if he were infallible.

And whenever he believes a man is not highly respected, he rejects his statements, even if they were the truth. So he makes the speaker of a statement the reason for [his] accepting or rejecting [it], without weighing it by the Book and the Sunnah.

Jāmiʿ Al-Masāʾil, vol. 7, pp. 463-64.