The anthropomorphic machine: Causal order in nature and the world view of common sense

Abstract

The first two studies investigate naïve ideas about the causal order in natural processes, using a cause‐effect pair construction method. Results show that people are not naïve systems theorists: they produce fewer feedback loops than would be expected by chance and treat nature as an Aristotelian one‐way causal hierarchy in which causal chains are overwhelmingly linear and causal influence is disseminated down from the top level of the system in an anthropomorphic manner involving the action of the causal powers of things. The action of the top level is treated in a manner analogous to the exercise of free will. In the third study, people endorsed a view of the world in general as a large and complex machine that never runs down, but which is endowed with the Aristotelian properties of purposiveness, direction towards mature forms, constructiveness, and natural justice.