Aggregate correlations cannot reveal the belief structures of individuals

Evidence

All of our data up to this point have used correlations calculated on aggregates as evidence of greater or lesser constraint among elements in belief systems. While we believe these correlations to be informative indicators, they do depend for their form upon cumulations among individuals and therefore can never be seen as commenting incisively upon the belief structures of individuals. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1933

Categorization

• XREF: The ecological fallacy — connects to Robinson’s 1950 work and to recent critiques of treating aggregate-network correlations as individual psychology. — connects to: Hayek argued contextual individual knowledge cannot be statistically aggregated — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 211; Big Data’s correlational mode is displacing causal and spirit-driven knowledge — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 158; Correlations without an encompassing concept yield no real knowledge — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 160
• DEFINE: Clarifies the limits of aggregate correlation evidence for studying individual belief structure.