Most of us have heard the phrase "correlation does not equal causation." But understanding how scientists move beyond identifying correlations to establish causation remains a mystery to many. Finding ...

Crime rates rise with ice cream consumption. Divorce rates rise as people use more margarine. These are classic examples of spurious correlations (Fletcher, 2014). Statistically, these variables move ...

Causation and correlation may sound alike but are very different. The former means the root of subsequent events, while the latter refers to an actual or apparent relationship between trends in which ...

The correlation function is a useful signal-analysis tool that engineers often overlook. Its formidable equation, which you have probably not thought about since your undergraduate signals and systems ...

Tyler Vigen’s book, Spurious Correlations, is warm, funny and makes several very important points. According to Vigen, his book is based on dozens of correlations between completely unrelated sets of ...

In the first case, there is a strong upward-sloping relationship between X and Y; in the second case, no apparent relationship; in the third case, a strong downward-sloping relationship. Note the ...

Correlation analysis in portfolio management design is overrated. There isn’t much benefit derived from relying on low correlation among asset classes to achieve excess return. The best way to use ...