Unidimensionality enables causal explanation rather than mere correlation

Evidence

Basically I went on because I greatly value construct validity. High internal consistency means the test is relatively unidimensional. It means you probably know what it really measures. It means you can not only correlate with things, you can explain things. You can understand. We shall soon see that tests with low internal consistency can correlate with other measures for many reasons. You may think you know what is going on, but you are likely collecting fool’s gold. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 671

Categorization

• XREF: The reliability-that-enables-explanation argument parallels critiques of multitrait confounds in political-psychology measures. — connects to: Correlational knowledge lacks the necessity that causal knowledge requires — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 159; Shared symbolic meanings within movements generate empirical regularities needing causal explanation — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 303