Course discussion blog for "How to Lie with Statistics: Uses and Misuses of Numbers in Argument", a 300-level Honors course at the University of New Mexico. Anyone can read this blog, but only class members can post.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Unknowns of Causation
One thing has plagued my mind since we first discussed the relationship of correlation to causation. Yes, the first phrase to state is, "correlation does not infer causation," but I wonder about the oddities outside of this idea. For instance, what if there are things that we currently believe to be correlated but not related, and in the future could be discovered to actually have some semblance of causation. I imagine that these instances are few and far between and highly case specific, seeing as I cannot think of any at the moment, I would like to provide a question to discuss as my topic post (if that's allowed?). Are there such exceptions that occur overtime where people have identified correlations but wrongfully suggested that these correlations did not infer causation when they actually do and if there are, what are some examples? I am attempting to foster a place to allow for discussion, so feel free to disagree, or provide any type of feedback.
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