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 ...

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 ...

Kwon is a Ph.D. student in health policy at Harvard University. Stuart is professor and chair in the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It is human ...

There’s an old saying that goes, “figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.” But sometimes even the figures can spin a confusing story. That’s why I’ve always appreciated the power of understanding ...

UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH: What do we actually mean by research and how does it help inform our understanding of things? Today we look at the dangers of making a link between unrelated results. Here's an ...

Contrary to the statistician's slogan, in the quantum world, certain kinds of correlations do imply causation. New research shows that in quantum mechanics, certain kinds of observations will let you ...

Paul Kaplan: Quoting Benjamin Disraeli, Mark Twain famously quipped, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." In the field of investments, in which we rely heavily on ...

"Synthetic chemical in consumer products linked to early death, study finds.” “People with the highest levels of phthalates had a greater risk of death from any cause, especially cardiovascular ...

[This post incorporates parts of posts from posts on my own blog and lecture notes I circulate to my graduate students. I figured it was worth revising and posting here as a) basically none of you are ...

A comment posted by a reader on a recent post reprimanded me for suggesting that marijuana caused relationships to go bad. In this instance the reader was mistaken, as I had specifically used the word ...