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Graphical model: Whereas a mediator is a factor in the causal chain (top), a confounder is a spurious factor incorrectly implying causation (bottom). In statistics, a spurious relationship or spurious correlation [1] [2] is a mathematical relationship in which two or more events or variables are associated but not causally related, due to either coincidence or the presence of a certain third ...
Correlation is a valuable type of scientific evidence in fields such as medicine, psychology, and sociology. Correlations must first be confirmed as real, and every possible causative relationship must then be systematically explored.
Causality, within sociology, has been the subject of epistemological debates, particularly concerning the external validity of research findings; one factor driving the tenuous nature of causation within social research is the wide variety of potential "causes" that can be attributed to a particular phenomena.
For example, an electrical utility may produce less power on a mild day based on the correlation between electricity demand and weather. In this example, there is a causal relationship, because extreme weather causes people to use more electricity for heating or cooling.
In psychology, illusory correlation is the phenomenon of perceiving a relationship between variables (typically people, events, or behaviors) even when no such relationship exists. A false association may be formed because rare or novel occurrences are more salient and therefore tend to capture one's attention . [ 1 ]
The phenomenon of spurious correlation of ratios is one of the main motives for the field of compositional data analysis, which deals with the analysis of variables that carry only relative information, such as proportions, percentages and parts-per-million. [3] [4] Spurious correlation is distinct from misconceptions about correlation and ...
The cast of “Friends” is well known for being besties, but that developed over time. During an appearance on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, “Friends” star Lisa Kudrow ...
The best available defense against the possibility of spurious results due to confounding is often to dispense with efforts at stratification and instead conduct a randomized study of a sufficiently large sample taken as a whole, such that all potential confounding variables (known and unknown) will be distributed by chance across all study ...