15 April 2022

Spurious correlations can be amusing


Via with snarky discussion.  More examples of spurious correlations.

4 comments:

  1. I've used several from the linked site with my students. In our "Intro to Science" unit we teach both graphing and interpretation of graphs to reach a conclusion. The kids always have trouble with the idea of correlation vs. causation until I bring some of these graphs in. (The one of drowning deaths and Nicolas Cage movies used to spark hot debates, but last year a significant portion of the kids were having to Google who he was.)

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    1. LOL at the idea of a new generation wondering who Nicholas Cage is. One of my old friends told me that the first time he felt "old" was when his daughter asked him who the Beatles were.

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  2. My first "old" moment was when one of the kids said "Mrs. Watson, did they even HAVE email when you were a kid? Like.... how old were you when you got your first e-mail address?" I was a senior in high school in 1996- growing up in the rural NC mountains meant internet was expensive, slow, and not widely available. At the time the question was asked, I was in my 2nd year teaching, 3 days away from being 30, and had 8th graders who'd been assigned an email address when they entered the 4th grade - the first grade in our middle school. The kid's response "Wow...so, like, you're OLD! Need help setting up the projector today?"
    The next morning the kid caught me listening to the Beetles as I prepped the lab before school started and said "Oh wow - so you're into that retro stuff? My grandma listens to that!"

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  3. The very first thing we learned in PSYC 101: Correlation does not imply causation. This was demonstrated by pointing out the correlation between amount of ice cream eaten in a given month, and drowning deaths in that given month.

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