what’s the difference between correlation and causation?
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Correlation means that two things appear to be linked somehow. Causation means that one thing leads to another.
So for instance a pub selling more beer might lead to a rise in the number of drunk people. That’s causation. One thing led to the other but not the other way round (i.e. A coach load of already drunk people arriving wouldn’t increase the amount of beer that already been sold).
With correlation, two things can change and *appear* to change in the same way, like [US import of oil from Norway and being hit by trains](https://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=136). But these two things may or may not be linked, may or may not cause each other or may be linked by an entirely different third thing which is actually the causation.
Hence the saying that correlation does not imply causation – you get a lot of people dishonestly using spurious correlation to try to convince you that there is causation.
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