    Story 53
    Comment: Normality and actual causal strength (Dropbox) (Icard, Kominsky, Knobe, 2017). Experiment 2, Vignette 4: Bureaucracy. Normative vs. abnormal, disjunctive.

    Prof. Smith works at a large university. At this university, in order to get new computers from the university, faculty like Prof. Smith must send an application to two administrative committees, the IT committee and the department budget committee. Prof. Smith will be able to get her new computers if the IT committee approves her application or the department budget committee approves her application. Only one of the committees needs to approve her application for her to get the new computers. The IT committee almost always approves these applications. The department budget committee almost never approves these applications. The budget committee is notorious for turning down almost every application they receive. Prof. Smith sends in her applications. Each committee meets independently and they decide without talking to each other, but their meetings are scheduled for the exact same time. The IT committee approves her application, and surprisingly, the department budget committee approves her application. So, Prof. Smith got her new computers. Does the department budget committee cause the approval of Prof. Smith's application?

    Answer: No