Gunnar Myrdal Quotes

All too often when liberals cite statistics, they forget the statisticians' warning that correlation is not causation.

But to measure cause and effect... you must ensure that a simple correlation, however tempting it may be, is not mistaken for a cause. In the 1990s the stork population of Germany increased and the German at-home birth rate rose as well. Shall we credit storks for airlifting the babies?

Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there.’

Much of what I do in my job is think about whether relationships we see in data are causal, as opposed to just reflecting correlations. It's exactly these issues which come up in evaluating studies in public health.

It doesn't take many observations to think you've spotted a trend, and it's probably not a trend at all.

When you try to predict future E.R.A.'s with past E.R.A.'s, you're making a mistake.

Beware of averages. The average person has one breast and one testicle.

The invalid assumption that correlation implies cause is probably among the two or three most serious and common errors of human reasoning.

It is easy to lie with statistics. It is hard to tell the truth without it.

The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.

Coincidences, in general, are great stumbling-blocks in the way of that class of thinkers who have been educated to know nothing of the theory of probabilities.

I'm very familiar with how people can confuse correlation with causation.

Being insignificant statistically doesn't mean it's right or wrong. It just means you don't have enough data to show yes or no.

The big mystery of Big Data is causation versus correlation.

We should be cautious about embracing data before it is published in the academic press, and must always avoid treating correlation as causation.

If you're a social scientist worth your salt, you never do a univariate analysis.

Statistics, one may hope, will improve gradually, and become good for something. Meanwhile, it is to be feared the crabbed satirist was partly right, as things go: "A judicious man," says he, "looks at Statistics, not to get knowledge, but to save himself from having ignorance foisted on him."

Averages don't always reveal the most telling realities. You know, Shaquille O'Neal and I have an average height of 6 feet.

[Statistics] The science that can prove everything except the usefulness of statistics.

Statistics always remind me of fellow who drowned in a river where the average depth was only three feet.

One of the first things taught in introductory statistics textbooks is that correlation is not causation. It is also one of the first things forgotten.

Since fresh examples and proofs could always be found of the alleged relation between guilt and punishment: if you behave in such and such a way, it will go badly with you. Now, as it generally does go badly, the allegation was constantly confirmed; and thus popular morality, a pseudo- science on a level with popular medicine, continually gained ground.

... the actual and physical conduct of an experiment must govern the statistical procedure of its interpretation.

Don't confuse correlation and causation. Almost all great records eventually dwindle.

Disagreements over money are the biggest cause of divorce." She waved her hand. "Absolutely no problem. Your money is our money. My money is my money." She wrote away. "I should make you negotiate with Phoebe.