The Reality of Treatment Effects

Abstract

Increasingly, work on the validity of experimental treatments has explored whether treatments are measuring what they intend to measure. This study compares a treatment of hypothetical hurricanes with actual hurricane effects, and finds that hypothetical hurricanes induce much stronger reactions than those observed in the natural world. Findings suggest that treatments, at least regarding disasters, stimulate behavior much more dramatic than, and in some cases contradictory to, that which is to be expected in regular behavior, and underline the importance of continuing to rely on observational studies.