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Beliefs about interactions between factors in the natural environment: a causal network study
Author(s) -
White Peter A.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1381
Subject(s) - causality (physics) , psychology , extinction (optical mineralogy) , attribution , set (abstract data type) , causal structure , causal model , natural (archaeology) , population , cognitive psychology , social psychology , geography , demography , computer science , sociology , medicine , paleontology , physics , archaeology , pathology , quantum mechanics , biology , programming language
This research is concerned with the structure of people's beliefs about causal processes in complex natural systems. A set of entities was derived from an expert analysis of important factors in relation to forest ecosystems and climate change. These included human population, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, fires and several biological features such as extinction rates. In two experiments participants were presented with each pair of entities and asked whether change in one would produce change in the other. From the judgements made, causal networks were constructed that reflected consensual causal beliefs. The resultant causal network was unidirectional, with some entities, such as humans, functioning as causal origins and others, such as extinction rates, functioning as effects. This is consistent with previous research showing unidirectional patterns of thinking about causality in natural systems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.