{"id":4147,"date":"2019-01-10T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4147"},"modified":"2019-01-06T17:26:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T22:26:41","slug":"lets-have-more-fun-with-the-correlation-causation-muddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/lets-have-more-fun-with-the-correlation-causation-muddle\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Have More Fun with the Correlation\/Causation Muddle"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve explored the relationship of correlation and causation before on the blog.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In particular, this commentary<\/a> on DeBoer’s blog notes that — while correlation doesn’t prove causation — it might be a useful first step in discovering causation.<\/p>\n

DeBoer argues for a difficult middle ground. He wants us to know (say it with me) that “correlation doesn’t prove causation.” AND he wants us to be\u00a0reasonably skeptical<\/em>, not\u00a0thoughtlessly reactive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On some occasions, we really ought to pay attention to correlation.<\/p>\n

More Fun<\/h2>\n

I recently stumbled across a livelier way to explore this debate: a website called Spurious Correlations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to explore the correlation between — say — the number of letters in the winning word of the Scripps National Spelling Bee<\/em> and — hmmm — the number of people killed by venomous spiders<\/em>: this is definitely website for you.<\/p>\n

Just so you know, the correlation of the divorce rate in Maine<\/strong> with per-capita consumption of margarine\u00a0<\/strong>is higher than 99%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve explored the relationship of correlation and causation before on the blog. In particular, this commentary on DeBoer’s blog notes that — while correlation doesn’t prove causation — it might be a useful first step in discovering causation. DeBoer argues for a difficult middle ground. He wants us to know (say it with me) that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-4147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-methodology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4151,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147\/revisions\/4151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}