Yes, But What's the Mechanism? (Don't Expect an Easy Answer)

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Volumn 98, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 550-558

  Bullock, John G ^a   Green, Donald P ^a   Ha, Shang E ^b  

^a YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

Author keywords

causal inference; experiments; indirect effects; mediation

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HUMAN; METHODOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL; PSYCHOLOGY;

HUMANS; MODELS, PSYCHOLOGICAL; PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL;

EID: 77949982138     PISSN: 00223514     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0018933     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Angrist J.D., Imbens G.W., and Rubin D.B. Identification of causal effects using instrumental variables. Journal of the American Statistical Association 91 (1996) 444-455
2. Arceneaux K., Gerber A.S., and Green D.P. Comparing experimental and matching methods using a large-scale voter mobilization experiment. Political Analysis 14 (2006) 37-62
3. Aronson E., Wilson T.D., and Brewer M.B. Experimentation in social psychology. In: Gilbert D.T., Fiske S.T., and Lindzey G. (Eds). The handbook of social psychology. 4th ed. 1 (1998), McGraw-Hill, New York, NY 99-142
4. Baron R.M., and Kenny D.A. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51 (1986) 1173-1182
5. Bauer D.J., Preacher K.J., and Gil K.M. Conceptualizing and testing random indirect effects and moderated mediation in multilevel models: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods 11 (2006) 142-163
6. Ben-Zeev T., Fein S., and Inzlicht M. Arousal and stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 41 (2005) 174-181
7. Blascovich J., Spencer S.J., Quinn D., and Steele C.M. African Americans and high blood pressure: The role of stereotype threat. Psychological Science 12 (2001) 225-229
8. Blau P.M., and Duncan O.D. The American occupational structure (1967), Wiley, New York, NY
9. Bolger N., and Amarel D. Effects of social support visibility on adjustment to stress: Experimental evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92 (2007) 458-475
10. Bolger N., Zuckerman A., and Kessler R.C. Invisible support and adjustment to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79 (2000) 953-961
11. Bullock, J. G., Green, D. P., & Ha, S. E. (2008). Experimental approaches to mediation: A new guide for assessing causal pathways. Unpublished manuscript, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
12. Cohen G.L. Party over policy: The dominating impact of group influence on political beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85 (2003) 808-822
13. DeWall C.N., Twenge J.M., Gitter S.A., and Baumeister R.F. It's the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in shaping aggressive responses to social exclusion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96 (2009) 45-59
14. Fisher R.A. The design of experiments. 1st ed. (1935), Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, Scotland
15. Gelman A., and Hill J. Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models (2007), Cambridge University Press, New York, NY
16. Glynn, A. N. (2009). The product and difference fallacies for indirect effects. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
17. Green D.P., Leong T.Y., Kern H.L., Gerber A.S., and Larimer C.W. Testing the accuracy of regression discontinuity analysis using experimental benchmarks. Political Analysis 17 (2009) 400-417
18. Iacobucci D. Mediation analysis (2008), Sage, New York, NY
19. James L.R. On the path to mediation. Organizational Research Methods 11 (2008) 359-363
20. Judd C.M., and Kenny D.A. Process analysis: Estimating mediation in treatment evaluations. Evaluation Review 5 (1981) 602-619
21. Keller J., and Dauenheimer D. Stereotype threat in the classroom: Dejection mediates the disrupting threat on women's math performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29 (2003) 371-381
22. Kenny D.A. Reflections on mediation. Organizational Research Methods 11 (2008) 353-358
23. Kenny D.A., Korchmaros J.D., and Bolger N. Lower level mediation in multilevel models. Psychological Methods 8 (2003) 115-128
24. Krueger A.B., and Whitmore D.M. The effect of attending a small class in the early grades on college-test taking and middle school test results: Evidence from project STAR. Economic Journal 111 (2001) 1-28
25. Krull J.L., and Mackinnon D.P. Multilevel mediation modeling in group-based intervention studies. Evaluation Review 23 (1999) 418-444
26. LaLonde R.J. Evaluating the econometric evaluations of training programs with experimental data. American Economic Review 76 (1986) 604-620
27. Lazarsfeld P.F. Interpretation of statistical relations as a research operation. In: Lazarsfeld P.F., and Rosenberg M. (Eds). The language of social research: A reader in the methodology of social research (1955), Free Press, Glencoe, IL 115-125
28. Luijben T.C.W. Equivalent models in covariance structure analysis. Psychometrika 56 (1991) 653-665
29. Mackie D.M., Gastardo-Conaco M.C., and Skelly J.J. Knowledge of the advocated position and the processing of in-group and out-group persuasive messages. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 58 (1992) 145-151
30. Mackie D.M., Worth L.T., and Asuncion A.G. Processing of persuasive in-group messages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (1990) 812-822
31. MacKinnon D.P. Introduction to statistical mediation analysis (2008), Erlbaum, New York, NY
32. MacKinnon D.P., Lockwood C.M., Hoffman J.M., West S.G., and Sheets V. A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods 7 (2002) 83-104
33. MacKinnon D.P., Lockwood C.M., and Williams J. Confidence limits for the indirect effect: Distribution of the product and resampling methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research 39 (2004) 99-128
34. Mathieu J.E., and Taylor S.R. Clarifying conditions and decision points for mediational type inferences in organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior 27 (2006) 1031-1056
35. Maxwell S.E., and Cole D.A. Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation. Psychological Methods 12 (2007) 23-44
36. McDonald R.P. Haldane's lungs: A case study in path analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research 32 (1997) 1-38
37. Miguel E., and Kremer M. Worms: Identifying impacts on education and health in the presence of treatment externalities. Econometrica 72 (2004) 159-217
38. Morgan S.L., and Winship C. Counterfactuals and causal inference (2007), Cambridge University Press, New York, NY
39. Muller D., Judd C.M., and Yzerbyt V.Y. When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89 (2005) 852-863
40. O'Brien L.T., and Crandall C.S. Stereotype threat and arousal: Effects on women's math performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29 (2003) 782-789
41. Pearl J. Direct and indirect effects. In: Breese J.S., and Koller D. (Eds). Proceedings of the Seventeenth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (2001), Morgan Kaufman, San Francisco, CA 411-420
42. Quiñones-Vidal E., López-Garcia J.J., Peñaranda-Ortega M., and Tortosa-Gil F. The nature of social and personality psychology as reflected in JPSP, 1965-2000. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86 (2004) 435-452
43. Ratkowsky D.A., Evans M.A., and Alldredge J.R. Cross-over experiments: Design, analysis, and application (1993), Marcel Dekker, New York, NY
44. Robins J.M. Semantics of causal DAG models and the identification of direct and indirect effects. In: Green P.J., Hjort N.L., and Richardson S. (Eds). Highly structured stochastic systems (2003), Oxford University Press, New York, NY 70-81
45. Rosenbaum P.R. The consequences of adjustment for a concomitant variable that has been affected by the treatment. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A 147 (1984) 656-666
46. Rubin D.B. Causal inference using potential outcomes: Design, modeling, decisions. Journal of the American Statistical Association 100 (2005) 322-331
47. Schmader T., and Johns M. Converging evidence that stereotype threat reduces working memory capacity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85 (2003) 440-452
48. Shrout P.E., and Bolger N. Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods 7 (2002) 422-445
49. Spencer S.J., Steele C.M., and Quinn D. Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 35 (1999) 4-28
50. Spencer S.J., Zanna M.P., and Fong G.T. Establishing a causal chain: Why experiments are often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89 (2005) 845-851
51. Stone-Romero E.F., and Rosopa P.J. The relative validity of inferences about mediation as a function of research design characteristics. Organizational Research Methods 11 (2008) 326-352
52. Tomarken A.J., and Waller N.G. Structural equation modeling: Strengths, limitations, and weaknesses. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1 (2005) 31-65