In an ongoing and geekily hilarious collection of evidence in defense of the fact that correlation does not imply causation, Harvard law student Tyler Vigen shares charts showing “spurious correlations” — high correlation between two random, unrelated statistics.
Divorce and Margarine
Bedsheet Deaths and Ski Profits
Norwegian Oil and Train Accidents
Uranium and Arcade Revenue
North Carolinian Marriage and Executions
Sour Cream and Motorcycle Accidents
Power Line Accidents and Alabaman Marriage
X-ray Deaths and Bike Accidents
Math Degrees and Suicide
Space Exploration and Sociology Degrees
See lots more at Vigen’s site.
But what if correlation does imply causation? Maybe Margarine is causing divorce in Maine…