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Causation and Correlation
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Main Post
Correlation is the tendency of two variables to tend to move together. The correlation could be negative meaning that the variables tend to move in a different direction or positive meaning that the variables tend to move in a similar direction. Pepperberg (2001) explained that causation involves causes and effect that is when one thing tends to happen it would be the outcome in another thing. It is mostly hard to identify a real causal relationship. In order to differentiate between correlation and causation, an example in Computer Networking Field will be used. The instance is the assertion that eating a lot of ice cream can assist in boost the scores of the students on the reading scale of PISA. There is a presence of correlation between the two data sets however there is an absence of evidence to ground the causation of one data and the other data. Increase consumption of ice-cream shows that there will be an increase in the student scores while decrease in the ice cream consumption leads to decrease in the students score. Whereas there may be a clear connection between ice cream consumption and IQ, the data does not conclusively reveal anything apart from the apparent correlation present.
Follow up post 1
From the main discussion post, there is a difference between the correlation and causation. Correlation is the tendency of two variables to tend to move together. While causation involves causes an effect that is when one thing tends to happen, it would be the outcome in another thing. It is easier to establish correlation while it is difficult to determine causation.
Follow up post 2
The example provided in the main discussion did not demonstrate causation, but it showed a correlation. Increase consumption of ice-cream indicates that there will be an increase in the student scores hence the correlation, but there is an absence of cause and effect that is linked with causation. In causation, cause and effect needs to be present while in correlation it is not a must.
References
Pepperberg, I. M. (2001). The conundrum of correlation and causation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(6), 1073-1074. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/212229516?accountid=41759
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