LESSON: Correlation vs. Causation

What is Correlation & Causation?

We mentioned correlation and causation briefly before in our lesson on misuses of statistics in the news. Remind yourself:

Correlation: two things are related to each other in some way

Causation: one thing causes another thing to happen.

As a society, we like causation, because we like to know cause and effect relationships. We like to know solutions to problems. And we like to make these relationships and problems as simple as possible, when the reality is that they rarely are. This is usually why causation is implied, when some things are really only correlated. 

Watch the video below to learn more:

Example of Correlation vs Causation

In this lesson video, we'll take a look at a news article that is misrepresenting data by claiming causation when in fact there is only correlation.