Aggregation rules determine how severely conceptual tautology inflates correlations.

Evidence

Because conceptual tautologies are usually partial this means that the overall levels of correlation between human rights and democracy might not be high. A lot depends on the measure of democracy and how large a role low human rights plays in the final democracy score. One can see how concept structure influences the degree of conceptual tautology. If low human-rights scores really drag down the democracy scores then the tautology problem increases (probably higher correlations); if best shot aggregation is used then the tautology problem is less obvious. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 543

Categorization

• XREF: Ties directly to the book’s earlier treatment of aggregation guidelines, showing that measurement choices mechanically shape observed relationships.