Question

What does correlation does not imply causation mean?

Give an example of two real-life variables that are correlated but do not have a causal relationship.

Also give an example of two variables that are correlated and that also have a causal relationship.

Answer 1

Correlation does not imply causation means if two things are correlated it does not mean one causes the other. Many times we found two variables increases or decreases with respect to the other but it does not mean an increase or decrease in one variable leads to change in the other variable. For example,

1. Sales of ice cream and sunglasses, these two variables correlated but it does not imply causation. Both of this item's sales increases as the temperature increase. But we can not say that an increase in sales of ice cream is due to an increase in sales of sunglasses and vice verse.

2. Example of two variables that are correlated and that also have a causal relationship:-

Consider the variables temperature and sells of ice cream. Now, these two variables are correlated and also have a causal relationship. As the temperature increases the selles of ice cream also increases. Here, one causes the other.