Determinants of Judgments of Explanatory Power: Credibility, Generality, and Statistical Relevance.

ABSTRACT: Explanation is a central concept in human psychology. Drawing upon philosophical theories of explanation, psychologists have recently begun to examine the relationship between explanation, probability and causality. Our study advances this growing literature at the intersection of psychology and philosophy of science by systematically investigating how judgments of explanatory power are affected by (i) the prior credibility of an explanatory hypothesis, (ii) the causal framing of the hypothesis, (iii) the perceived generalizability of the explanation, and (iv) the relation of statistical relevance between hypothesis and evidence. Collectively, the results of our five experiments support the hypothesis that the prior credibility of a causal explanation plays a central role in explanatory re

SUBMITTER: Colombo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5591454 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature