Practice question · True or false
A large and statistically robust correlation is enough to establish which variable causes the other.
Hints
- What does a correlation leave open?
- Direction, and the third variable.
Show the answer
False
Why
False. Size and significance say nothing about direction or about a lurking common cause. Ice-cream sales and drownings correlate strongly through summer heat. Only intervention, randomised assignment, settles causation, which is why the correlational/experimental distinction is the backbone of methods teaching.
Practise Quasi-Experimental and Non-Experimental Designs
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