Correlation vs Causality
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Did you know that ice cream causes more drowning?Fact: More people drown during the summer months
Fact: More people eat ice cream during the summer months Conclusion: Ice cream causes drowning … When discussing research, whether it’s business research, medical research, psychology research, etc., it is important to understand one overruling basic principle: when two things are related that doesn’t mean that they are influencing each other. Or, just because things correlate doesn’t mean that they caused the effect. This misconception is often made when marketers are determining a target demographic or looking at trends in their business. They assume that a target is a certain way or an event is happening because of x. This often times may not be the case. Tip: Look at how the data was collected, and consider other factors and influencers in the situation. |
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