Judgments about event causation are influenced by "reversibility"

What is it about?

What influences whether people think that two events are causally connected? Based on a recent philosophical study, the present research empirically demonstrates that a crucial aspect that has received little attention in the literature is “causal reversibility”. Causal reversibility describes whether an effect persists over time (i.e., is irreversible) or disappears again once its cause(s) are removed (i.e., is reversible). Using a type of situation philosophers have taken to demonstrate seemingly unshakable intuitions about event causation (called “late preemption” in the literature), the present research revealed that these intuitions may actually change depending on whether the situation’s causal structure is reversible or irreversible. More specifically, the experiments demonstrate that events that do not seem to be causally connected to an effect in the irreversible case can become causal if the (otherwise identical) situation is reversible.

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Photo by Nadir sYzYgY on Unsplash

Photo by Nadir sYzYgY on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Reversibility as a feature of causality has been understudied, despite the fact that reversible causal structures are ubiquitous in the world. Just consider diseases, which we aim to cure by reversing the underlying causal process trough medical treatment. The present research suggests that causal reversibility can drastically change our intuitions about cause and effect, even in situations that have been taken to elicit very stable intuitions. This highlights the importance of further investigating its role in causal cognition.

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