Loops, Latents, and the Unavoidable A Priori: Why Causal Modeling Needs Couple’s Therapy
Teams love causal diagrams. A product team draws arrows from “user trust” to “adoption.” A policy team draws loops between “service capacity,” “public confidence,” and “demand.” A data science team converts the same discussion into variables, coefficients, latent constructs, and model fit indices. Everyone nods. Everyone says “causal.” Then the meeting ends, and each group quietly returns to a different universe. ...