1. the temporal separation of a cause from its effect. Not all causes need have immediate effects; indeed, there may be a lengthy interval between a cause and the effect it produces. Causal latency may be expected to increase when there are other factors in a situation that may influence the cause-and-effect relationship. Some causes studied in psychology and the other social sciences are remote causes, in that they require the presence or activity of other factors or conditions before their effects become manifest. Remote causes may be expected to have large causal latencies. See delayed effect.

2. in the statistical procedure known as path analysis, the quality of a variable that has a measurable statistical effect on prediction only when other predictor variables are also included in the prediction model. Although the statistical relationships identified in such analyses are not, strictly speaking, causal, the language of causality is commonly employed. See causal path.