Psychology / Unit 1 Psych 0065 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Why Correlational Data Stays Correlational
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The idea
Correlational data cannot be converted into causal data by any amount of additional reasoning about the same data.
In practice
Adding statistical controls narrows the alternatives and never produces the manipulation an experiment performs.
Where people slip
This is the most common error in reported psychology, and it is committed by researchers as often as by headlines.
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