Tuesday 28 August 2012

Stats - Quick Review

7. Give an example to explain how correlation does not indicate or prove causation. Very infants develop the symptoms of autism shortly after the normal time in childhood when the MMR inoculation is administered. Some parents of these autistic children came to blame the vaccination for the child’s condition. This confusion lasted for several years and the numbers of children received vaccination felt to dangerously low levels. Fortunately, detailed studies then was able to convince the majority of parents that MMR inoculation and the onset of autism were not causally linked. Therefore, even if we have applied statistical tests that indicate the possibility of a correlation, we cannot then assert that one event is the cause of the other.

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