Abstracts
Abstract
Simple explanations are very often inadequate and can encourage faulty inferences. We examined college students’ explanations regarding illegal immigration to determine the prevalence of single-factor explanations. The form of students’ explanations was predicted by their responses on a simple three-item forced-choice multivariable causal reasoning task in which they selected the strongest evidence against a causal claim. In a further qualitative investigation of explanations by a sample of community adults, we identified positive features among those who scored high on this multivariable causal reasoning task. We consider limitations of single-factor reasoning and means of encouraging more comprehensive explanations to support claims.
Keywords:
- causal reasoning,
- explanation,
- sociopolitical views,
- multivariable thinking
Résumé
Les explications simples sont très souvent inadéquates et peuvent encourager des inférences erronées. Nous avons examiné les explications des étudiants concernant l'immigration illégale afin de déterminer la prévalence des explications fondées sur un seul facteur. La forme des explications des étudiants a été prédite par leurs réponses à une simple tâche de raisonnement causal multivariable à choix forcé de trois éléments dans laquelle ils ont sélectionné la preuve la plus solide contre une affirmation causale. Dans une autre enquête qualitative sur les explications fournies par un échantillon d'adultes de la communauté, nous avons identifié des caractéristiques positives parmi ceux qui ont obtenu une note élevée dans cette tâche de raisonnement causal multivariable. Nous examinons les limites du raisonnement à facteur unique et les moyens d'encourager des explications plus complètes pour étayer les affirmations.
Appendices
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