Correlation and causation are two different terms which are often confused to mean the same thing. While correlation hints on the relation between two occurrences, causations suggests that one thing occurs as a result of the other. With correlation, it is not easy to identify the exact nature of the relationship between the occurrences and may require either statistical analysis or controlled experiments which need to be formulated ( Altman & Krzywinski, 2015). There is a tendency in humans to assume that if two occurrences happen at the same time consistently then one is the cause of the other.
Humans get troubled often when their minds create a relationship of cause and effect that does not exist in an actual sense ( Walton, 2016). Often, when harmful or beneficial occurrences happen, people begin seeking for the cause. People tend to look at the first action that they notice before the effect and get to assume that it is what triggered the event. While this kind of analysis is often right, it is not always accurate and, therefore, correlation cannot be assumed to mean causation. The fallacy of correlation and causation indicates that anything which happens earlier must be the cause of an event which happens later and once people get to think about the whole event this way, they stop thinking of any other possibilities ( Stigler, 2005). It is important to know the differences between correlation and causation to avoid casually assuming that all events are caused by the occurrences which happen before them. As with any fallacy regarding logic, observing that the reason behind an argument is not right does not indicate that the conclusion drawn is false ( Stigler, 2005).
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A common example of the confusion of causation and correlation is that smoking cigarettes cause lung cancer. This is something which is widely taught even in schools. For a long time, tobacco companies have tried to oppose the association between lung cancer and smoking cigarettes indicating that correlation does not imply causation. While it is true that lung cancer may not necessarily be caused by smoking cigarettes, assuming the relationship between the two can bring dangerous consequences.
References
Altman, N., & Krzywinski, M. (2015). Points of Significance: Association, correlation and causation.
Stigler, S. M. (2005). Correlation and causation: A comment. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine , 48 (1), 88-S94.
Walton, D. (2016). Arguments from Correlation to Causation. In Argument Evaluation and Evidence (pp. 179-208). Springer, Cham.
