Do not neglect the impacts of the obverse action. If you decline the interview, what impact will that have? Maybe the reporter will pick someone else to interview (so, are you a better or worse candidate than whoever their next contact is?), or just put “could not be reached for comment” (what impact does that have on the rest of the article?)
Good point. I intended “compared to the counterfactual” to be implicit throughout this article, as that’s really what “impact” should always mean. I also briefly alluded to it in saying “such as harms from someone less qualified being interviewed”.
But it’s true that many people don’t naturally interpret “impact” as “compared to the counterfactual”, and that it’s often worth highlighting explicitly that that’s the relevant comparison.
To address that, I’ve now sprinkled in a few mentions of “compared to the counterfactual”. Thanks for highlighting this :)
Very good point! The effect of not taking an action depends on what the counterfactual is: what would happen otherwise/anyway. Maybe the article should note this.
Do not neglect the impacts of the obverse action. If you decline the interview, what impact will that have? Maybe the reporter will pick someone else to interview (so, are you a better or worse candidate than whoever their next contact is?), or just put “could not be reached for comment” (what impact does that have on the rest of the article?)
Good point. I intended “compared to the counterfactual” to be implicit throughout this article, as that’s really what “impact” should always mean. I also briefly alluded to it in saying “such as harms from someone less qualified being interviewed”.
But it’s true that many people don’t naturally interpret “impact” as “compared to the counterfactual”, and that it’s often worth highlighting explicitly that that’s the relevant comparison.
To address that, I’ve now sprinkled in a few mentions of “compared to the counterfactual”. Thanks for highlighting this :)
Very good point! The effect of not taking an action depends on what the counterfactual is: what would happen otherwise/anyway. Maybe the article should note this.