natalyarostova parent
Scientific method is undergoing intense changes in methodology. I suspect in 50 years the way causal inference is done will in many areas be radically different.
Oh absolutely. I often read scientific journal articles which make suggestions of direct relations between different factors when it’s very likely they are correlational.
Example: being overweight increases risk of heart disease.
Alternate Possibility: being inactive/not exercising increases risk of heart disease and being overweight tends to co-occur with not exercising.
In the above example it’s possible that an inactive person who is not overweight has similar liklihood of heart disease.