Yes, but what's the mechanism? (don't expect an easy answer).

J Pers Soc Psychol

Department of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

Published: April 2010

Psychologists increasingly recommend experimental analysis of mediation. This is a step in the right direction because mediation analyses based on nonexperimental data are likely to be biased and because experiments, in principle, provide a sound basis for causal inference. But even experiments cannot overcome certain threats to inference that arise chiefly or exclusively in the context of mediation analysis-threats that have received little attention in psychology. The authors describe 3 of these threats and suggest ways to improve the exposition and design of mediation tests. Their conclusion is that inference about mediators is far more difficult than previous research suggests and is best tackled by an experimental research program that is specifically designed to address the challenges of mediation analysis.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018933DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

mediation
5
what's mechanism?
4
mechanism? expect
4
expect easy
4
easy answer
4
answer psychologists
4
psychologists increasingly
4
increasingly recommend
4
recommend experimental
4
experimental analysis
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!