Correlation is not causation

What XKCD says:
xkcd on correlation: I used to think correlation implied causation - Then I took a statistics class.  Now I dont - Sounds like the class helped.  Well, maybe.

The mouseover text on the original says “Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there’.”

It is a bad habit, hard to break, the temptation is great.

One Comment
  1. hlee:

    Often times I see that the style of astronomers’ exercising correlation studies follows statistical methods for understanding causality. Nice cartoon!!!

    03-06-2009, 3:04 pm
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