Think about how correlation is often miscast as causation. That is, cause is attributed to a variable when in?

Question

fact, there is no causal relationship but only a correlation between the two variables.
Consider any current news articles or media stories (especially political articles or stories) that involve correlations. Select one to use an an example.
Using your example, describe how correlation might be interpreted inappropriately as causation. Also describe the possible explanations for the correlation.

Answer 1

That first fact is indeed incorrect. You can have causation. However, most of the time we miscategorize correlation with causation. The example I use when I teach statistics is this - there is a correlation between number of fire trucks that show up to a fire and amount of damage that the fire does. So larger fires mean more fire trucks, right? The wrong causational argument would be to suppose that it is the fire trucks causing the damage rather than the actual fire.

Here's another example of a wrong causation: In the summer ice cream sales rise. Also in the summer incidences of crime rise. Therefore eating ice cream makes people turn to crime. It sounds silly right? The two are certainly correlated, but we're forgetting about a third variable - the weather.

I hope this helps!