tease out - 翻譯

The quantitative researcher tends to be concerned to relate these concepts to
one another to investigate associations and to tease out causal processes.

請問這個句子的tease out是什麼意思呢?
查了tease這個字 只有嘲笑得意思
也找不到後面有加out的片語
請大大幫個忙
謝謝

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