How do you know a question has the correlation-causation flaw?

Comments

• 1 Like

  learn2skipQs Member

  December 2020 edited December 2020 730 karma

  Not a stupid question. Look for indicator words in the conclusion ( such as “will result in, will likely, “etc.).
• 7 Likes

  LOWERCASE EVERYTHING Member ⭐

  December 2020 edited December 2020 1952 karma

  if you're talking specifically about the correlation-causation flaw, the argument concludes a causal relationship from correlation (i.e. evidence was correlation, but conclusion is causal). so yes, the conclusion must be causal in order to illustrate this specific flaw.

  but keep in mind that not all causal arguments are weak specifically because of the correlation-causation flaw; for example, there may be times when the author confuses chronology with causation, conditional logic with causation, the argument draws a weak causal hypothesis/explanation for a phenomenon, or the conclusion is just not well supported.

  on a related note, it's generally fair to be suspicious of the conclusion if it is causal, because the author needs a lot of support/assumptions to arrive at such a strong relationship. this is partly why causality appears a lot on questions like strengthen/weaken.

  the following terms often introduce a basic cause/effect relationship:
  caused by
  leads to
  produced by
  because of
  induced by
  product of
  reason for
  responsible for
  is an effect of

  also be wary of conclusions that are more complex, remove some degree of certainty/force, or those that open possibility for multiple causes/partial causes:

  "it is possible that y is the result of x" (possible cause)
  "y is probably the result of x" (probable cause)
  "partly responsible" (partial cause)
  "....among other factors" (multiple cause)
  "a high lsat score is important, and it increases the chance that you will get accepted to a t-14 school" (cause that increases the likelihood of effect)
  "phd degree always leads to permanent head damage" (causation with conditional strength)

  hope this helps. good luck!
• 1 Like

  RyanazR Member

  December 2020 208 karma

  Thank you all so much! I would keep these in mind @learn2skipQs and @"LOWERCASE EVERYTHING"