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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Ice cream sales and shark attacks are highly correlated. Is one causing the other? Obviously not. It’s summertime and people are outside more and going to the beach more, hence more chance for both ice cream sales AND shark attacks. So there is a correlation, but ice cream sales and shark attacks are not causing each other. Banning ice cream will not have an effect on shark attack frequency. A lot of people will mistakenly see that two things seem to be related, and will try to “ban ice cream” as a solution to a problem when that’s not going to work because there are other major drivers at play.
This is different from a correlation that IS due to causation, such as: shark encounters are increasing, while water temperatures are also increasing. We know through research that climate change and rising ocean temperatures are affecting where sharks can live and this is making them more common near beaches where you wouldn’t normally see so many sharks.
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