Is it correct that a user chooses the correct answer?

Question

In stack overflow the mechanism is simple, you have a problem, you ask a question, people propose a solution in an answer, you try it, if it works you choose the correct answer.

In EL&U Stack Exchange however; I do not think the user have the same ability or means, at least not all the time, to judge if the answer is correct, it is not like if he used a wrong answer he would get a compilation error.

I understand this is somewhat philosophical, and I do not really have a clever alternative, but maybe someone does or someone has a counter argument to end this line of thinking.

Edit:

The question asked here is basically asking the same thing, and I think the conclusion there is good too, why not add a guideline to choosing an accepted answer based on the suggested references and methods?

Answer 1

The user does not choose the correct answer, on any Stack Exchange site.

The user selects the answer which he found most helpful. In some cases, the two are synonymous, and the most helpful answer will be the code which doesn't crash his PC. In other cases, particularly in Arts subjects, the answer which is most helpful to the user may not be the one which most people would judge is most correct.

In extreme cases, this can lead to a completely wrong answer being accepted, probably because the answer panders to the asker's misconception or prejudices and is the answer he wanted rather than the one he needed.

However, this is what voting is for. If an answer is wrong, or at the very least unhelpful, downvote it. If there is a good answer, upvote that. It's the voting which should guide the asker into choosing the best answer as most helpful. (Yes, you incur a penalty for downvoting an answer. But the answerer incurs twice as much for each downvote, and enough downvotes will probably also trigger delete votes. When an answer is deleted you get your 1-point rep penalty back.)

It may be unfortunate that the accepted answer gets a green tick. But that doesn't mean "this is right"; it means "this worked for me".

Answer 2

Let me paraphrase your post to confirm we're talking about the same thing. You observed that in ELU, the people who answer typically have a firmer grasp of English than the person who asked the question (the OP). You're then asking why it makes sense for the OP to judge an answer.

It makes sense because the OP is the one who needs to be satisfied with the answer (see Andrew Leach's answer). The question remains: without knowing the answer beforehand, how should the OP decide when a question receives multiple answers and the answers don't agree, other than looking at the tally of votes?

They decide by looking at the support provided for each conclusion. ELU answers should be supported by appropriate justification such as dictionary definitions, logical argument, statistics, usage example and so on. These lend credibility to the answer; conversely, their absence can leave an answer looking weak. (See, for example, my answer to a related question).

ELU regulars also tend to point out flaws in answers rather freely, subject to the be nice policy. Although criticism is on occasion unwarranted, the discussions tend to bring out nuances of questions and answers that may have otherwise been left unaddressed. The process tends to validate or to invalidate an answer more clearly than just the bare answer. These discussions can provide valuable information to the OP regarding the correctness or otherwise of an answer. The answers themselves are often improved upon as a result of these discussions.

Note that all this also influences the community's votes on answers, which the OP can use as a gauge of each answer's popularity.

In short, the community's involvement and our preference for supported answers help the OP to judge the answers they receive. Based on this informed opinion, it then makes sense for the OP to award the green tick to whichever answer is most helpful.