Which statement about correlation and causation is true?

Which statement about correlation and causation is true?

• A. Correlation proves causation
• B. Correlation does not imply causation
• C. Causation requires correlation and p-value
• D. There is never a causal relationship

Answer: (B)

Correlation measures an association between two variables, not whether one causes the other. Two things can move together for several reasons: they might be directly linked, there could be a third factor that influences both (a confounder), the direction could be reversed (the effect influences the supposed cause), or the relationship could be due to chance in the data. A classic example is warm weather: ice cream sales and drowning incidents tend to rise together, but buying ice cream does not cause drownings—both rise because of summer conditions. To establish causation, you need more than a correlation. You need temporal order (the cause comes before the effect), control for confounding factors, and ideally experimental manipulation or a design that isolates the causal factor. Statistical significance or a strong correlation alone does not prove causation. So the statement that correlation does not imply causation is the true one.

Correlation measures an association between two variables, not whether one causes the other. Two things can move together for several reasons: they might be directly linked, there could be a third factor that influences both (a confounder), the direction could be reversed (the effect influences the supposed cause), or the relationship could be due to chance in the data. A classic example is warm weather: ice cream sales and drowning incidents tend to rise together, but buying ice cream does not cause drownings—both rise because of summer conditions.

To establish causation, you need more than a correlation. You need temporal order (the cause comes before the effect), control for confounding factors, and ideally experimental manipulation or a design that isolates the causal factor. Statistical significance or a strong correlation alone does not prove causation. So the statement that correlation does not imply causation is the true one.