If x happens and then y happens, does that mean x caused y? No. It's true that x may have caused y, but you need something more to connect them, or we'd all believe that carrying an umbrella causes rain, or that vaccines cause autism. There are plenty of other reasons those things sometimes happen together. Correlation is not causation, but it sometimes makes a good story to tell. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
ReplyDelete"Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there.'"
Am I allowed to post a picture?
ReplyDeletehttps://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/correlation.png
I don't know how to post pictures in comments, but your link goes to exactly what I thought it was!
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