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The study by Schnall and colleagues illustrates the causal limitations of non-manipulated variables. While researchers could conclude that the manipulated variable of disgust affected the harshness of moral judgments, they could not make the same causal claim about private body consciousness. Because private body consciousness was only measured and not manipulated, any association with moral judgments might be caused by an unmeasured third variable, such as neuroticism, that independently increases both bodily awareness and moral strictness.

Example of Causal Limitations: Private Body Consciousness and Moral Judgments

In a study on disgust and moral judgments, researchers manipulated feelings of disgust and also measured participants' level of private body consciousness (awareness of internal bodily sensations). Why were the researchers unable to make a causal claim about private body consciousness and moral judgments?

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