The three faces of faithfulness
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Synthese
Publication Date
4-2016
Volume
193
Issue
4
First Page
1011
Last Page
1027
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Keywords
Causal inference, Bayes nets, Faithfulness, Graphical models
Abstract
In the causal inference framework of Spirtes, Glymour, and Scheines (SGS), inferences about causal relationships are made from samples from probability distributions and a number of assumptions relating causal relations to probability distributions. The most controversial of these assumptions is the Causal Faithfulness Assumption, which roughly states that if a conditional independence statement is true of a probability distribution generated by a causal structure, it is entailed by the causal structure and not just for particular parameter values. In this paper we show that the addition of the Causal Faithfulness Assumption plays three quite different roles in the SGS framework: (i) it reduces the degree of underdetermination of causal structure by probability distribution; (ii) computationally, it justifies reliable (constraint-based) causal inference algorithms that would otherwise have to be slower in order to be reliable; and (iii) statistically, it implies that those algorithms reliably obtain the correct answer at smaller sample sizes than would otherwise be the case. We also consider a number of variations on the Causal Faithfulness Assumption, and show how they affect each of these three roles.
DOI
10.1007/s11229-015-0673-9
Print ISSN
00397857
E-ISSN
15730964
Funding Information
The research of J. Zhang was supported in part by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong under the General Research Fund LU342213. {LU342213}
Publisher Statement
Copyright © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015.
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Zhang, J., & Spirtes, P. (2015). The three faces of faithfulness. Synthese. 193(4), 1011-1027. doi: 10.1007/s11229-015-0673-9