Psychology 2800E Chapter Notes -Pellagra, Spurious Relationship, Partial Correlation
17 Dec 2013
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It is not the strength, but the nature of the relationship that is relevant (giving out toasters will not make people use contraceptives). Two variables may be associated without having a causal relationship. The presence of a correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Goldberger ate poo, didn"t get pellagra, created the necessary conditions for it to be transmitted and it wasn"t therefore it cannot be caused by feces, Goldberg must be right about it being caused by poor diet. Proved his condition by using 2 groups of prisoners, giving them the two types of diets, people with the poor diet got pellagra. Important to approach correlational evidence with certain skepticism. Correlations like that between sewage and pellagra are often termed spurious correlations: correlations that arise not because a causal link exists between the 2 variables that are measured, but because both variables are related to the third variable.
