I’ve seen this referenced a lot, especially with psychology, but can someone explain what exactly it means? How does correlation not imply causation? Sometimes, does correlation ever imply causation?
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Correlation means that two variables happen to have a statistical relationship. As one goes up, the other goes up. Or, if one goes up, the other goes down. But that relationship might be a complete coincidence or they might both be caused by the same underlying factor but are not directly related at all. For example, ice cream sales and shark attacks are very highly correlated in the US. But that doesn’t mean eating ice cream makes you more likely to be attacked by a shark.
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