Don’t jump to conclusions…

Cause and effect is not always this obvious…

In sci­ence and sta­tis­tics it is a com­mon and dire warn­ing that “cor­re­la­tion does not imply cau­sa­tion”.  Every­one under­stands the con­cept of cause and effect: hit the bil­liard balls and watch them roll away in the oppo­site direc­tion you hit them.  How­ever, some­times the cor­re­la­tion is not so obvi­ous… some­times a cor­re­la­tion doesn’t really exist but is only per­ceived to.  See­ing should not always be believ­ing, study­ing is impor­tant.  Before jump­ing to a con­clu­sion, make sure you have accu­mu­lated and con­sid­ered as much data as pos­si­ble.  When it seems that a link exists, it is cer­tainly worth look­ing into.  Unfor­tu­nately, many are eager to make a dis­cov­ery so they might dis­cover a link that is only loosely con­nected, or not even con­nected at all (some other force is caus­ing the effect that is not being con­sid­ered).  Coin­ci­dences exist, and just because it would be con­ve­nient for two events to be con­nected, that does not neces­si­tate it to be so.

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