Statistics: correlation and causation
Describe a time in your life that you used correlation to make a decision. Use a paragraph to explain.
What was the result?
Explain
Did you wrongly feel that correlation was the same as causation?
Based on the previous question you just answered. Why or why not - (I want to make sure I understand what correlation and causation mean and how they are very different).
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SOLUTION This solution is FREE courtesy of BrainMass!
In my undergraduate Basic Statistics Class, I had to make a project in which I had to measure the correlation between height and weight of my classmates.
Therefore, I've asked my colleagues to tell me their weight and height, and put the data in EXCEL. Then, the CORREL function gave me the correlation coefficient between those two variables.
I remember that the number I got was pretty high: r = 0.85, so I concluded that there is a high correlation, about 85%, between height and weight of my classmates.
I was wondering if the correlation I computed was the same as causation, but then I realized that, it my case, was not the case.
Causation is when one variable implies the other. For example: the students' weight was greater because they were taller. But that is not true. Height does not cause weight. Weight is caused by other factors, such as: number of meals per day, or amount and quality of food, or genealogy. But the weight is not caused directly by the height.
Therefore, even though weight and height are strongly correlated, there is not a causation between them.
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