Correlation does not imply causation

Darrell Huff masterfully writes How to Lie With Statistics which covers many of the statistic gathering and displaying methods used today, from carefully picked averages to well chosen samples. He does not simply discuss these methods, however. He spectacularly demonstrates how companies, colleges, and quite often media sources use these tools to manipulate data into their favor. While it may appear to be fairly outdated to the casual reader, Darrell Huff's book still applies today, over…

scatterplot. In this example, a research study in a newspaper article claims that since there is a positive correlation between taking vitamins and crime rates, vitamins cause crime. While scatterplots imply causation and people often use them to display a relationship, they cannot be used to prove a cause-and-effect relationship. The only research design that allows researchers to infer causation is experimental designs. Therefore, in order to prove (or disprove) a causal relationship between…

of uproar for politicians and citizens alike. From religious affiliations to conceptions of what true liberty is, there are a number of reasons why the population differs from one another when viewing these topics; however, distinguishing correlation from causation should be a driving force in forming our opinions around what action should take place when dealing with these issues as a nation. And as a democratic republic, it is especially…

.75 is a strong correlation. .75 is also positive correlation. What does this correlation mean? Correlation is used to determine how reliable your evidence is. When values are in correlation “the characteristics are related, and the evidence for the relationship is that they vary together, or co-vary” (Tanner, 2011). This correlation does imply that individuals with high (IQ’s) have high Grade Point Averages. This correlation does not provide evidence that high IQ causes…

because they draw some form of correlation doesn’t mean that it will actually happen. The idea of “correlation doesn’t equal causation” is been used in many setting and is explained very well in this quote “"Correlation does not imply causation" is a phrase used in statistics to emphasize that a correlation between two variables does not imply that one causes the other. Many statistical tests calculate correlation between variables. A few go further, using correlation as a basis for testing a…

else- only that as soon as one thing finished something else happened to start. It is assumed that the reason is causation, but it is not guaranteed. It could instead be happenchance that they as soon as one thing started the other finished. It could also just be a matter of chance that it happens to occur sequentially every single time. Ayer explains that every example of “causation” is actually invariable concomitance so every aspect of a person’s character that would normally be attributed…

incorrectly recognize the toy weapon as a real gun (Charis-Carlson, 2016). Although, it does not completely answer the question, it definitely…

different problems. The horse would choose the answer for the owner’s problem or could not answer the computation problem at all. When scientists have two theories that appear to be equally possible, the parsimony principle is used. This principle encourages scientists to choose the simpler theory with fewer conceptual relationships to be preferred. In addition, scientists have learned to look for facilitated communication cues as was the case in an autism studies by Faith in 1989 and 1993…

great source of entertainment for children and have become very popular, they have also fallen victim to absurd allegations that they cause violence. Video games do not inherently lead to violence because simply seeing a violent act being demonstrated does not mean you will feel inclined to commit that act. In the editorial “Target Real Violence, Not Video Games”, Robert D. Richards and Clay Calvert challenge the public perception of video games and the misconception that video games are…

during continual sub-maximal activity, the organism has a predisposition to respond to the rhythmical element of music (Karageorghis & Terry, 1997) Though the consistent correlations between running with music and longer run-to-exhaustion times and better oxygen intake do not mean causation, it does show that medium to high tempo music does correlate with better stamina. Karageorghis maybe trying to say that running in-sync with music causes a much more even stride, and that music can arouse a…