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Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there.’
Randall Munroe
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Correlation can be misleading without establishing a causal relationship.

This quote humorously highlights the common misunderstanding that just because two events occur together, one must cause the other. It suggests that while correlations can be intriguing, they should be approached with skepticism, as they may lead us to make incorrect assumptions about causality.

Themes

CorrelationCausationScienceSkepticismAssumptions

In practice

Example use cases

In a scientific discussion about data analysis, one might say this quote to caution against jumping to conclusions based solely on correlation.

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