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Not so Simple! Mechanisms Increase Preference for Complex Explanations

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4130789
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30/30 checkable references clean · checked 2026-08-27

Every reference with a DOI in the deposited reference list resolved to a known work in Crossref or DataCite at the dated check, and none carried a retraction, withdrawal, or removal notice.

14 without a DOI — not checked. A reference deposited without a DOI is never matched by title or guessed at; it stays outside the checked set, and this line discloses that.

The 30 checked references that resolve
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Causal Attribution as a Search for Underlying Mechanisms: An Explanation of the Conjunction Fallacy and the Discounting Principle
resolves10.1016/0010-0277(94)00640-7
The role of covariation versus mechanism information in causal attribution
resolves10.1037/a0020218
Missing the trees for the forest: A construal level account of the illusion of explanatory depth.
resolves10.3758/s13423-017-1299-3
Concreteness and abstraction in everyday explanation
resolves10.1037/a0026471
Occam's rattle: Children's use of simplicity and probability to constrain inference.
resolves10.1016/0010-0277(91)90047-8
Causes versus enabling conditions
resolves10.1177/0956797612464058
Political Extremism Is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding
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Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making
resolves10.1037/h0085799
Theory and data interactions of the scientific mind: Evidence from the molecular and the cognitive laboratory.
resolves10.1007/s10670-009-9203-9
Ephemeral Mechanisms and Historical Explanation
resolves10.1111/cogs.12213
Causal Networks or Causal Islands? The Representation of Mechanisms and the Transitivity of Causal Judgment
resolves10.1016/j.cogpsych.2019.05.004
Simplicity and complexity preferences in causal explanation: An opponent heuristic account
resolves10.1037/h0034747
On the psychology of prediction.
resolves10.1037/h0034225
The processes of causal attribution.
resolves10.1080/17470218.2011.592593
The Need to Explain
resolves10.1037/a0021809
When one model casts doubt on another: A levels-of-analysis approach to causal discounting.
resolves10.1037/0022-3514.47.5.933
Conjunctive explanations: When two reasons are better than one.
resolves10.1016/j.cogpsych.2006.09.006
Simplicity and probability in causal explanation
resolves10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.001
Explanatory Preferences Shape Learning and Inference
resolves10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.7
Discounting causes of behavior: Are two reasons better than one?
resolves10.1037/0033-295X.102.2.331
When one cause casts doubt on another: A normative analysis of discounting in causal attribution.
resolves10.1016/j.jesp.2009.03.009
Instructional manipulation checks: Detecting satisficing to increase statistical power
resolves10.1037/xge0000318
Ockham’s razor cuts to the root: Simplicity in causal explanation.
resolves10.1016/j.cogpsych.2013.09.002
Mechanistic beliefs determine adherence to the Markov property in causal reasoning
resolves10.1037/0022-3514.65.3.429
Explanatory coherence in social explanations: A parallel distributed processing account.
resolves10.1207/s15516709cog2605_1
The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth
resolves10.1093/oso/9780190860974.003.0012
Are Humans Intuitive Philosophers?
resolves10.2307/2025686
The Best Explanation: Criteria for Theory Choice
resolves10.1037/0022-3514.74.2.312
Causal explanation as constraint satisfaction: A critique and a feedforward connectionist alternative.
resolves10.1162/jocn.2008.20040
The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations
The 14 references without a DOI — listed, not checked
no DOI — not checkedref11
no DOI — not checkedOckham's razor and Bayesian analysis
no DOI — not checkedref14
no DOI — not checkedStatistical and Mechanistic Information in Evaluating Causal Claims
no DOI — not checkedWhat is a 'mechanism'? A distinction between two sub-types of mechanistic explanations
no DOI — not checkedExplanatory preferences for complexity matching
no DOI — not checkedref24
no DOI — not checkedref31
no DOI — not checkedref33
no DOI — not checkedref35
no DOI — not checkedThe causal and unification approaches to explanation unifiedcausally
no DOI — not checkedExtensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment
no DOI — not checkedExplanations and causal judgments are differentially sensitive to covariation and mechanism information
no DOI — not checkedEvaluating everyday explanations
What this badge says. CiteStamped means the CHECKABLE references of this work were clean at the dated check: each resolved to a known work in a public registry, and none carried a retraction notice at that time. It says nothing about the quality, findings, or importance of the work itself, and nothing about references deposited without a DOI.

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