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That Mashable infographic [1] is really awful, making so many terrible connections. For example "Between 1980 and 2000 Exercise rates stayed the same, sitting time increased 8%, obesity doubled".

[1] http://mashable.com/2011/05/09/sitting-down-infographic/




Obligatory XKCD reference: http://xkcd.com/552/

The problem is that causation does result in correlation, and sometimes we need/ought to take action before things can be proven conclusively.


*correlation results in causation


I have no idea what you mean by that, because the obvious and naive reading of what you've written is manifestly false. You might try expanding on it to help me (and others) understand what you're trying to say.


I misinterpreted your comment and replied accordingly.

Your point was that causal relationships also exhibit correlation. I thought you were trying to say that correlation between data occasionally (but not always) identifies a causal relationship...and that's why I made my comment. My comment is also missing the word "occasionally," as in "correlation occasionally results in causation."

So, in sum, I was trying to make the same point you made. Sorry about the way I went about it.




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