Process Tracing Methodology

Smoking Guns, Hoops and Straws:
Common Misinterpretations of Test Categories

The categorization of process tracing tests for causality presented in the table above often causes confusion among students. It stated as Stephen Van Evera’s (and later Alexander Bennett’s) attempt to represent the logical concepts of necessity and sufficiency in colloquial terms. Unfortunately, sometimes students misinterpret the categories as as actual types of tests as opposed to characterizations of the causal implications of any particular test. This will manifest in students saying something like “I want to conduct a Hoop test” rather than describing a test they have designed as a hoop test.