Showing posts with label potential outcomes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potential outcomes. Show all posts

Thursday, November 14, 2013

But is it causal? Defining causality

As I alluded to in my last post, defining what it means for $X$ to cause $Y$ is no simple task.  It is not an idea that can be defined in purely probabilistic terms, because it says something about the mechanisms underlying the system we are studying, and what will happen if we interfere with that system in some way.

Consider the example given at the end of the last post.  The headline was:
How a short nap can raise the risk of diabetes
The implication of this is that the risk of diabetes increases because of the nap.  But what does this mean?