Mediation analysis has gotten a lot of flak, including classic titles such as “Yes, but what’s the mechanism? (Don’t expect an easy answer)” (Bullock et al., 2010), “What mediation analysis can (not) do” (Fiedler et al., 2011), “Indirect effect ex machina” (The 100% CI, 2019), “In psychology everyth| The 100% CI
For any central statistical analysis that you report in your manuscript, it should be absolutely clear for readers why the analysis is being conducted in the first place – that is, the analysis goal should be transparently communicated. A helpful concept here is the so-called theoretical estimand, t| The 100% CI
TL;DR: Tell your students about the potential outcomes framework. It will have (heterogeneous) causal effects on their understanding of causality (mediated through unknown pathways), I promise. It’s probably fair to say that many psychological researchers are somewhat confused about causal infere| The 100% CI
