Causality and Correlation
Raphael Sassower · The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory · 2017
Causality and correlation are often confused with each other by an eager public when a relationship between two events is claimed to be necessary (or inevitable) rather than occasional (or coincidental). Correlation, in contrast to causation, is commonly discussed in statistical terms and it describes the degree or level of association between or the expected rate of appearance of two unrelated or random variables. Even when statistically significant correlation exists between two observable events (or sets of events), the degree to which there is in fact a causal relation between these events remains unclear. Causal connections are more difficult to establish and therefore will be found less frequently than correlations, which occur much more frequently.