Enough Already about "Black Box" Experiments: Studying Mediation Is More Difficult than Most Scholars Suppose

The question of how causal effects are transmitted is fascinating and inevitably arises whenever experiments are presented. Social scientists cannot be faulted for taking a lively interest in "mediation," the process by which causal influences are transmitted. However, social scientists fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2010-03, Vol.628 (1), p.200-208
Main Authors: GREEN, DONALD P., HA, SHANG E., BULLOCK, JOHN G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Causal inference
Causality
Experiment design
Experimentation
Experiments
Intellectuals
Mediation
Norms
Observational research
Political campaigns
Political science
Research Design
Research methods
Scurvy
Social psychology
Social science research
Social sciences
Social Scientists
Statistical methods
Studies
Vitamin C
Voting behavior
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Summary:The question of how causal effects are transmitted is fascinating and inevitably arises whenever experiments are presented. Social scientists cannot be faulted for taking a lively interest in "mediation," the process by which causal influences are transmitted. However, social scientists frequently underestimate the difficulty of establishing causal pathways in a rigorous empirical manner. We argue that the statistical methods currently used to study mediation are flawed and that even sophisticated experimental designs cannot speak to questions of mediation without the aid of strong assumptions. The study of mediation is more demanding than most social scientists suppose and requires not one experimental study but rather an extensive program of experimental research.
ISSN:0002-7162
1552-3349
DOI:10.1177/0002716209351526