09/05/2023
New talk coming up soon: Naftali Weinberger (LMU Munich), "Three Myths About Causal Mediation". Friday, September 15th, 3:30 – 4:30pm, McGill University, Burnside Hall 1104.
https://montrealphilscinet.wordpress.com/activites-activities/
Abstract: Causal mediation techniques are a means for identifying the degree to which a cause influences its effect along particular causal paths. For example, in a model where a cause influences its effect both indirectly via a mediator and directly via factors not included in the model, mediation techniques enable one to measure both direct and indirect effects. Although mediation techniques are widely employed, they are often misunderstood. This is in part due to the long-term influence of Baron and Kenny’s (1986) treatment of mediation, which applies only to linear models without interaction, and which leads one to develop intuitions about direct and indirect effects that do not generalize to non-parametric causal models. In my talk, I identify and reject three persistent myths about mediation. I argue that such methods: 1. Should not be understood as decomposing the total effect into additive components corresponding to the contributions of the paths; 2. Are not a means for eliminating latent heterogeneity; and 3. Do not require one to appeal to causal concepts other than the counterfactual causal ones built into structural causal models. These points are crucial for understanding mediation effects in any contexts in which they are studied, and have particular applications for studies of fairness and discrimination, in which such effects play an increasingly central role (Plečko and Bareinboim, 2022).
This talk is co-sponsored with the Mathematics and Philosophy departments at McGill.
