Treating symptoms or root causes: How does information about causal mechanisms affect interventions?
arXiv:2601.20010v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: When deciding how to solve complex problems, it seems important not only to know whether an intervention is helpful but also to understand why. Therefore, the present study investigated whether explicit information about causal mechanisms enables people to distinguish between multiple interventions. It was hypothesised that mechanism information helps them appreciate indirect interventions that treat the root causes of a problem instead of just fixing its symptoms. This was investigated in an experimental […]