1. Galit Shmuéli
Ij Israel Statistical Association
& Tel Aviv University
July 9, 2012
To Explain or To Predict?
?‫להסביר או לנבא‬

2. Points for discussion: goo.gl/gcjlN
Twitter: #explainpredict

3. Road Map
Definitions
Explanatory-dominated social sciences
Explanatory ≠ predictive modeling
Why?
Different modeling paths
Explanatory vs. predictive power
So what?

4. Definitions
Explanatory modeling:
Theory-based, statistical testing of
causal hypotheses
Explanatory power:
Strength of relationship in statistical
model

5. Definitions
Predictive modeling:
Empirical method for predicting new
observations
Predictive power:
Ability to accurately predict new
observations

6. Statistical modeling in
social science research
Purpose: test causal theory (“explain”)
Association-based statistical models
Prediction nearly absent

7. Explanatory modeling à-la social sciences
Start with a causal
theory
Generate causal
hypotheses on
constructs
Operationalize constructs → Measurable variables
Fit statistical model
Statistical inference → Causal conclusions

8. In the social sciences,
data analysis is mainly used for testing
causal theory.
“If it explains, it predicts”

9. “Empirical prediction alone
is un-scientific”
Some statisticians share this view:
The two goals in analyzing data... I prefer to describe
as “management” and “science”. Management seeks
profit... Science seeks truth.
- Parzen, Statistical Science 2001

10. 52 “predictive” articles among 1,072
in Information Systems top journals

11. Why Predict? for Scientific Research
new theory
develop measures
compare theories
improve theory
assess relevance
predictability
Shmueli & Koppius, “Predictive Analytics in IS Research”
(MISQ, 2011)

12. “A good explanatory model will also
predict well”
“You must understand the underlying
causes in order to predict”

13. Philosophy of Science
“Explanation and prediction have the
same logical structure”
Hempel & Oppenheim, 1948
“It becomes pertinent to investigate the
possibilities of predictive procedures
autonomous of those used for explanation”
Helmer & Rescher, 1959
“Theories of social and human behavior
address themselves to two distinct goals of
science: (1) prediction and (2) understanding”
Dubin, Theory Building, 1969

14. Why statistical
explanatory modeling
differs from
predictive modeling
Shmueli (2010), Statistical Science

15. Theory vs. its manifestation
?

16. Notation
Theoretical constructs: X, Y
Causal theoretical model: Y=F(X)
Measurable variables: X, Y
Statistical model: E(y)=f(X)

17. Four aspects Y=F(X)
E(Y)=f(X)
1. Theory – Data
2. Causation – Association
3. Retrospective – Prospective
4. Bias - Variance

18. “The goal of finding models that are
predictively accurate differs from the
goal of finding models that are true.”

19. Point #1
Best explanatory model
≠
Best predictive model

20. Four aspects Y=F(X)
Y=f(X)
1. Theory - Data
2. Causation – Association
3. Retrospective – Prospective
4. Bias - Variance

21. Predict ≠ Explain
“we tried to benefit from an extensive
set of attributes describing each of the
movies in the dataset. Those attributes
certainly carry a significant signal and
+
can explain some of the user behavior.
However… they could not help at all
?
for improving the [predictive]
accuracy.”
Bell et al., 2008

22. Predict ≠ Explain
The FDA considers two products
bioequivalent if the 90% CI of the
relative mean of the generic to brand
formulation is within 80%-125%
“We are planning to… develop predictive models for bioavailability
and bioequivalence”
Lester M. Crawford, 2005
Acting Commissioner of Food & Drugs

23. Goal Design & Data EDA
Definition Collection Preparation
Variables? Model Use &
Methods? Evaluation, Reporting
Validation
& Model
Selection

24. Study design
& data collection
Observational or experiment?
Primary or secondary data?
Instrument (reliability+validity vs. measur accuracy)
How much data?
How to sample?
Hierarchical data

25. Data Preprocessing
missing reduced-
feature
models
partitioning

26. Data exploration & reduction
Interactive
visualization
PCA
SVD

27. Which Variables?
endogeneity
ex-post
availability
causation associations
Multicollinearity? A, B, A*B?

28. Methods / Models
Blackbox / interpretable
Mapping to theory
variance bias
Shrinkage models
ensembles

29. Model fit ≠
Validation
Explanatory power
Theoretical Empirical
Data
model model
Evaluation, Validation
& Model Selection
Empirical Training data Over-fitting
model Holdout data analysis
Predictive power

30. Model Use
test causal theory Inference
Null hypothesis
new theory
Develop measures
compare theories Predictive performance
improve theory Naïve/baseline
assess relevance Over-fitting analysis
predictability

31. Point #2
Explanatory Predictive
Power ≠ Power
Cannot infer one from the other

32. out-of-sample
interpretation
p-values prediction
accuracy
Performance
R2 costs
Metrics
Training vs.
goodness-of-fit holdout
type I,II errors over-fitting

33. Predictive Power
Explanatory Power

34. The predictive power of an
explanatory model has important
scientific value
Relevance, reality check, predictability

35. In “explanatory” fields
Prediction underappreciated
Distinction blurred
Unfamiliar with predictive
modeling/assessment
“While the value of scientific prediction… is beyond
question… the inexact sciences [do not] have…the
use of predictive expertise well in hand.”
Helmer & Rescher, 1959

36. How does all this impact
Scientific Research?

37. What can be done?
acknowledge
incorporate prediction into
curriculum

38. What happens in other fields?
Epidemiology
Engineering
Life sciences
What about “predictive only”
fields? http://goo.gl/gcjlN

39. Shmueli (2010), “To Explain or To Predict?”, Statistical Science
Shmueli & Koppius (2011), “Predictive analytics in IS research”, MISQ