Effects of Causal Structure on Decisions About Where to Intervene on Causal Systems. (22nd December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Edwards, Brian J.; Burnett, Russell C.; Keil, Frank C.
• Is Part Of: Cognitive science. Volume 39:Number 8(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1912
• Page End: 1924
• Publication Date: 2014-12-22
• Subjects: Causal reasoning -- Intervention; Cognition -- Periodicals; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12210
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0364-0213

Abstract

Abstract: We investigated how people design interventions to affect the outcomes of causal systems. We propose that the abstract structural properties of a causal system, in addition to people's content and mechanism knowledge, influence decisions about how to intervene. In Experiment 1, participants preferred to intervene at specific locations (immediate causes, root causes) in a causal chain regardless of which content variables occupied those positions. In Experiment 2, participants were more likely to intervene on root causes versus immediate causes when they were presented with a long‐term goal versus a short‐term goal. These results show that the structural properties of a causal system can guide the design of interventions.