The Difference Between Correlation And Causation. Photo taken by Chris Liverani at Unsplash. What’s a “Corelation?”? A relationship is what “co-relation” means. We can see a relationship between variables if there’s a correlation. Positive correlation: When X is higher, Y also rises or vice versa.
Negative correlation: If X is higher, then Y will also increase or vice versa. If there is no clear relationship between two variables, this is called no correlation.
Correlation is a Numerical value that tells about the strength of the relationship between the 2 things/Variables. Correlation coefficients range from -1 to 1. The value of the coefficient indicates the strength and the sign the degree to which the variables are related. A positive sign indicates that two variables are directly related, while a negative sign signifies that they are invertedly correlated. Source: Author. What does causation mean? Causation refers to the cause-and-effect relationship between two things. It means that one thing can cause another to change its value.
Example: Exercise Caused Burning of calories. Gravity can cause objects to sink downwards. But, correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation. Just because two things seem to be related doesn’t make them cause one another. Example: Going to Hospital positively correlates with the number deaths. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t die if you go to hospital. One example: Smoking can cause lung cancer.
People who smoke have the same chance of developing lung cancer than those who do. NO There are other causes of lung cancer. Yes, Smoking is a major cause of lung cancer. Other causes can include pollution. Thank you for your time! You can reach me by email at [email protected], or via my LinkedIn profile. Is it difficult to understand the relationship between correlation and causation? This story was first published on Medium by . People are continuing to the dialogue on Medium by highlighting it and responding. Published via
