• Title of article

    Is everyday causation deterministic or probabilistic?

  • Author/Authors

    Frosch، نويسنده , , Caren A. and Johnson-Laird، نويسنده , , P.N.، نويسنده ,

  • Issue Information
    ماهنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2011
  • Pages
    12
  • From page
    280
  • To page
    291
  • Abstract
    One view of causation is deterministic: A causes B means that whenever A occurs, B occurs. An alternative view is that causation is probabilistic: the assertion means that given A, the probability of B is greater than some criterion, such as the probability of B given not-A. Evidence about the induction of causal relations cannot readily decide between these alternative accounts, and so we examined how people refute causal assertions. In four experiments most participants judged that a single counterexample of A and not-B refuted assertions of the form, A causes B. And, as a deterministic theory based on mental models predicted, participants were more likely to request multiple refutations for assertions of the form, A enables B. Similarly, refutations of the form not-A and B were more frequent for enabling than causal assertions. Causation in daily life seems to be a deterministic concept.
  • Keywords
    Causation , refutation
  • Journal title
    Acta Psychologica
  • Serial Year
    2011
  • Journal title
    Acta Psychologica
  • Record number

    1904594