Suppose you heard a person speaking about two graphs. You couldn't make out quite what they were saying but you saw that since 1920, the variable on the left graph showed a decreasing value and the variable on the right graph showed an increasing value. If they asserted that the left graph variable's decrease therefore caused the right variable's increase you would be

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that one variable is decreasing while the other is increasing does not necessarily mean that one caused the other. Causation and correlation are not the same, meaning that while two variables might be correlated or related, it is not necessarily true that one is the cause of the other. Therefore, one cannot be fully convinced of the soundness of the argument just because of the graphs.

Suppose You Heard a Person Speaking About Two Graphs