People often prefer simpler explanations, defined as those that posit the presence of fewer
causes (eg, positing the presence of a single cause, Cause A, rather than two causes …

Humans are capable explainers and lay people tend to share the same explanatory virtues
held in high regard by philosophers and scientists. However, a recent line of studies found a …

Cognitive scientists suggest that inviting people to explain contentious political issues might
reduce intergroup toxicity because it exposes people to how poorly they understand the …

Courses in data literacy, along with electronic tools to support them, have quickly sprung up
for students from elementary through college levels, prompted in part by an increasingly …

Investigating how people evaluate more or less complex causal theories has been a focal
point of research. However, previous studies have either focused on token-level causation …

People sometimes prefer a simple explanation, such as a common-cause diagnosis that two
symptoms are caused by one disease, rather than a more complex separate-causes …

People often need to evaluate competing explanations. Past work suggests people often do
this using heuristics based on explanatory virtues (ie, valued properties of explanations such …

People often need to evaluate competing explanations. Past work suggests people often do
this using heuristics based on explanatory virtues (ie, valued properties of explanations such …

Cognitive scientists suggest that prompting people to explain (rather than freely discuss)
contentious political issues might reduce intergroup toxicity because it exposes people to …