- Oxford Library of Psychology
- The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Causal Reasoning: An Introduction
- Associative Accounts of Causal Cognition
- Rules of Causal Judgment: Mapping Statistical Information onto Causal Beliefs
- The Inferential Reasoning Theory of Causal Learning: Toward a Multi-Process Propositional Account
- Causal Invariance as an Essential Constraint for Creating a Causal Representation of the World: Generalizing the Invariance of Causal Power
- The Acquisition and Use of Causal Structure Knowledge
- Formalizing Prior Knowledge in Causal Induction
- Causal Mechanisms
- Force Dynamics
- Mental Models and Causation
- Pseudocontingencies
- Singular Causation
- Cognitive Neuroscience of Causal Reasoning
- Visual Impressions of Causality
- Goal-Directed Actions
- Planning and Control
- Reinforcement Learning and Causal Models
- Causation and the Probability of Causal Conditionals
- Causal Models and Conditional Reasoning
- Concepts as Causal Models: Categorization
- Concepts as Causal Models: Induction
- Causal Explanation
- Diagnostic Reasoning
- Inferring Causal Relations by Analogy
- Causal Argument
- Causality in Decision-Making
- Intuitive Theories
- Space, Time, and Causality
- Causation in Legal and Moral Reasoning
- The Role of Causal Knowledge in Reasoning About Mental Disorders
- Causality and Causal Reasoning in Natural Language
- Social Attribution and Explanation
- The Development of Causal Reasoning
- Causal Reasoning in Non-Human Animals
- Causal Cognition and Culture
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Although causality is rarely discussed in texts on decision-making, decisions often depend on causal knowledge and causal reasoning. This chapter reviews what is known about how people integrate causal considerations into their choice processes. It first introduces causal decision theory, a normative theory of choice based on the idea that rational decision-making requires considering the causal structure underlying a decision problem. It then provides an overview of empirical studies that explore how causal assumptions influence choice and test predictions derived from causal decision theory. Next it reviews three descriptive theories that integrate causal thinking into decision-making, each in a different way: the causal model theory of choice, the story model of decision-making, and attribution theory. It discusses commonalities and differences between the theories and the role of causality in other decision-making theories. It concludes by noting challenges that lie ahead for research on the role of causal reasoning in decision-making.
Keywords: causal decision-making, causal model, theory of choice, causal narratives, story model, attribution theory
Department of Psychology University of Göttingen Göttingen, Germany
Leeds School of Business University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, Colorado, USA
Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Causal Reasoning: An Introduction
- Associative Accounts of Causal Cognition
- Rules of Causal Judgment: Mapping Statistical Information onto Causal Beliefs
- The Inferential Reasoning Theory of Causal Learning: Toward a Multi-Process Propositional Account
- Causal Invariance as an Essential Constraint for Creating a Causal Representation of the World: Generalizing the Invariance of Causal Power
- The Acquisition and Use of Causal Structure Knowledge
- Formalizing Prior Knowledge in Causal Induction
- Causal Mechanisms
- Force Dynamics
- Mental Models and Causation
- Pseudocontingencies
- Singular Causation
- Cognitive Neuroscience of Causal Reasoning
- Visual Impressions of Causality
- Goal-Directed Actions
- Planning and Control
- Reinforcement Learning and Causal Models
- Causation and the Probability of Causal Conditionals
- Causal Models and Conditional Reasoning
- Concepts as Causal Models: Categorization
- Concepts as Causal Models: Induction
- Causal Explanation
- Diagnostic Reasoning
- Inferring Causal Relations by Analogy
- Causal Argument
- Causality in Decision-Making
- Intuitive Theories
- Space, Time, and Causality
- Causation in Legal and Moral Reasoning
- The Role of Causal Knowledge in Reasoning About Mental Disorders
- Causality and Causal Reasoning in Natural Language
- Social Attribution and Explanation
- The Development of Causal Reasoning
- Causal Reasoning in Non-Human Animals
- Causal Cognition and Culture
- Index
