Correlation And Causation Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Correlation And Causation?
Correlation and causation are two different terms that can often be confused. Correlation is when two or more variables have a relationship with each other but not necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship. Causation, on the other hand, is where one variable causes the change in another variable.When looking at correlations between variables, it’s important to remember that they may or may not be causal relationships. Just because there is a correlation between two variables does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. For example, some studies have found correlations between sleeping habits and academic performance; however, this does not necessarily mean that sleep has an effect on academic performance. It could simply be that better students tend to get more restful sleep than poorer students do.Causation requires much more evidence than correlation does because it implies a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables instead of just association. In order for causation to occur, there needs to be evidence of a direct link between the two variables; often times this means running experiments and controlling for any possible confounding factors in order to determine whether or not causation exists in a given situation. For example, if researchers wanted to see if smoking cigarettes caused lung cancer they would need to run experiments over long periods of time while controlling for any potential confounders such as age and genetics in order to determine if smoking was actually causing lung cancer or if there were other factors at play here as well. To summarize, correlation occurs when two or more variables are associated with each other but there may not necessarily be a cause-and-effect relationship involved whereas causation occurs when one variable directly causes changes in another variable through experimentation and controlled studies over long periods of time while taking into account any confounding factors present as well.