Educational Psychology / Unit 2 EDP 0118 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Correlation Is Not Causation
Captions available
The idea
Correlation does not show causation, because a confounding variable may drive both: ice cream sales and crime rise together, and both follow hot weather.
In practice
If students who eat breakfast earn higher grades, family routines might explain both.
Where people slip
Only an experiment, with random assignment, can establish that one variable causes another.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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