BIPS-Institutsseminar: Jessica Young on "Story-Led Causal Inference"

At the BIPS Institute Seminar, Jessica Young, Associate Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, presented a new perspective on the consistency condition in modern causal inference. Her talk on April 30, 2025, focused on how causal reasoning can be strengthened when the scientific narrative behind a research question is placed at the center.

Young outlined the longstanding divide in the field: while some regard consistency as a definitional aspect of a causal model, others treat it as an assumption that may break down when treatment occurs in multiple forms, leaving the causal aim unclear. Her alternative, a “story-led approach,” emphasizes the conceptual framing of a study over constraints posed by available data.

Using research on the purported “protective effect of cancer on dementia,” Young illustrated how clear narrative grounding helps sharpen causal targets and avoid conceptual misunderstandings related to consistency. The talk highlighted the value of strong conceptual foundations for drawing robust conclusions in complex longitudinal settings.