Property transmission: an explanatory account of the role of similarity information in causal inference.

Full Abstract

Many kinds of common and easily observed causal relations exhibit property transmission, which is a tendency for the causal object to impose its own properties on the effect object. It is proposed that property transmission becomes a general and readily available hypothesis used to make interpretations and judgments about causal questions under conditions of uncertainty, in which property transmission functions as a heuristic. The property transmission hypothesis explains why and when similarity information is used in causal inference. It can account for magical contagion beliefs, some cases of illusory correlation, the correspondence bias, overestimation of cross-situational consistency in behavior, nonregressive tendencies in prediction, the belief that acts of will are causes of behavior, and a range of other phenomena. People learn that property transmission is often moderated by other factors, but under conditions of uncertainty in which the operation of relevant other factors is unknown, it tends to exhibit a pervasive influence on thinking about causality. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: White, Peter A (PA);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Tower Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3YG, Wales, UK. whitepa(-atsign-)cardiff.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Psychological bulletin (Psychol Bull), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 135 (issue 5) : pp 774-93

Dates: Created 2009/08/25; Completed 2009/10/16;

PMID: 19702382, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/16/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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