Social science more easily explains macro-to-micro than micro-to-macro causation

Evidence

We know perfectly well how to come down from the macro-level to the micro-level, considering the impact of societal structures and changes on individual attitudes. It is much more difficult to ascend again and to speculate about the effects of an aggregation of individual attitudes on macrophenomena. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1446

Categorization

• QUESTION: The doctor’s wife in Saramago is one individual whose attitude re-scales into macro order — an unusual bottom-up case worth interrogating.