8. In your own words, what does it mean to say "correlation do...

Question

8. In your own words, what does it mean to say "correlation does not imply causation"? List a pair of variables that have correlation but no cause-and-effect relationship.

Accepted Answer

Below there, today we're going to solve the following practice problem together. So first off, let us read the problem and highlight all the key pieces of information that we need to use in order to solve this problem. Select the best example of two variables that are correlated due to a lurking variable, not because one causes the other. Awesome. So it appears for this particular problem we're asked to look at our multiple choice answers, and we're asked to determine which of our multiple choice answers has the best example of two variables that are correlated due to a lurking variable and not because one causes the other. So now that we know what we're trying to solve for, let's read off our multiple choice answers to see what our final answer might be. A is the number of beach visitors and sunburn cases. B is the number of storks seen and birth rates. C is the amount of sleep and alertness, and D is calories consumed and weight gain. Awesome. So our first step that we need to take in order to solve this particular problem is we need to recall that correlation due to a lurking variable means that both variables are influenced by a third factor, not by each other. So with that in mind, let us consider that the number of storks seen and the birth rates may both be higher in rural areas, but we also need to note that in theory, if they're higher in rural areas, we need to consider the most important fact, which the most important fact is, is storks do not cause births, and because storks do not cause births, That means that this is in line with a correlated due to a lurking variable. In order to further prove this fact that that let's make a note of this, that multiple choice answer letter B is our correct and final answer. Another way we can like confirm that this is our final and correct answer is we need to note that all of our other multiple choice answers, letters A, C, and D, these options describe a plausible cause and effect relationship. Because the number of beach visitors and sunburns describes a cause and effect relationship, the same with the amount of sleep and alertness and for the calories consumed and weight gain. And these are all cause and effect except multiple choice answer letter B, which is the number of storks seen and birth rates. And that's it. That is our final answer. So without a doubt, once again, our final answer is multiple choice answer letter B, the number of storks seen and birth rates. Thank you so much for watching. Hopefully that helped, and I can't wait to see you in the next video. Bye.

8. In your own words, what does it mean to say "correlation does not imply causation"? List a pair of variables that have correlation but no cause-and-effect relationship.

Key Concepts

Correlation

Causation

Spurious Correlation

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