Tagged Questions

4
votes
3answers
213 views

Big Data vs multiple hypothesis testing?

Nate Silver in his excellent "The Noise and the Signal" warned that we are much in awe of Big Data. But, that Big Data predictions in many fields have been disastrous (financial markets and economics ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views

X and Y are not correlated, but X is significant predictor of Y in multiple regression. What does it mean?

X and Y are not correlated (-.01); however, when I place X in a multiple regression predicting Y, alongside three (A,B, C) other (related) variables, X and two other variables (A,B) are significant ...
1
vote
2answers
103 views

Must there be “an effect to be mediated” in mediational analysis (i.e., must IVs & DVs be correlated)?

Baron and Kenny outlined several steps to aid in determining if a mediational analysis is appropriate to test a particular hypothesis. The very first step was "Show that the initial [independent] ...
3
votes
2answers
327 views

Differentiating correlation and causation using conditional probablity

I'm trying to understand the difference between causation and correlation using conditional probabilities. From what I understand, one may quantify causation by $P(E_1|E_2) / P(E_1)$. For example, ...
37
votes
5answers
2k views

Does causation imply correlation?

Correlation does not imply causation, as there could be many explanations for the correlation. But does causation imply correlation? Intuitively, I would think that the presence of causation means ...
1
vote
2answers
117 views

Is this a valid approach to testing a hypothesis about the relationship between two variables?

I am trying to test a hypothesis I have about consolidation in the real-world market for a certain machine. (My apologies in advance for obfuscating a bit here, but some of the data is proprietary and ...
1
vote
3answers
509 views

Correlation versus cause-effect regression

I know correlation does not imply causation. I have read it nth time. (i.e. weight does not cause height etc. etc.) However, to find the effect of a moderator variable on X-Y relationship, a ...
8
votes
4answers
4k views

Does simple linear regression imply causation?

I know correlation does not imply causation but instead the strength and direction of the relationship. Does simple linear regression imply causation? Or is an inferential (t-test, etc.) statistical ...
3
votes
2answers
663 views

How to test whether correlation measures differ when controlling or not for a third variable?

If the correlation between demographic dissimilarity and satisfaction is $r=.-14$ and the partial correlation, with career development partialled out, between demographic dissimilarity and ...
34
votes
14answers
6k views

Under what conditions does correlation imply causation?

We all know the mantra "correlation does not imply causation" which is drummed into all first year statistics students. There are some nice examples here to illustrate the idea. But sometimes ...