Causation, Correlation, and Association
One of my favorite logical screw-ups that people make is confusing correlation or association with causation.
Reading this article on the BP mess I noticed a blatant confusion of causation and association.
“These individuals are working out in the heat of the sun. These are long days. They start early in the morning, and they stop early in the evening,” he said. “So the fact that they were leaving the location late in the afternoon was not unusual. It’s not associated with the president arriving.”
Wrong, Dougie. The fact that your workers were leaving is ABSOLUTELY ASSOCIATED with the President leaving, by virtue of the fact that it happened at the same time or we wouldn’t even be talking about it.
Whether or not the President leaving was the CAUSATION is up you to know.
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If you’re trying to point out people confusing correlation vs causation, then shouldn’t you be pointing your finger at Chris Roberts (the one who made the accusation)? He was the one that was trying to say “because the workers left after Obama, they were brought there for show.”
I understand the idea you’re trying to convey, but you’re calling the guy out for using the wrong word, not for any sort of mistake in logic.
The statement he was clearly trying to make was “it’s a coincidence they left at the same time”.
Sean