Question Description
Explain why correlation alone is rarely sufficient to demonstrate cause.
Final Answer
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Correlation
is a statistical measure (expressed as a number) that describes the
size and direction of a relationship between two or more variables.
A correlation between variables, however, does not automatically mean
that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in the values
of the other variable.
Causation
indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of the other
event; i.e. there is a causal relationship between the two events. This
is also referred to as cause and effect.
Theoretically, the difference between the two types of relationships are easy to identify — an action or occurrence can cause another (e.g. smoking causes an increase in the risk of developing lung cancer), or it can correlate
with another (e.g. smoking is correlated with alcoholism, but it does
not cause alcoholism). In practice, however, it remains difficult to
clearly establish cause and effect, compared with establishing
correlation.
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