### 1.2.3 Quiz: Identifying Causation

Question 3 of 10

A government passes a law increasing taxes on banks. Two days later, there are several bank robberies. A politician who opposed the taxes claims that the new law is causing bank robberies. What is wrong with the politician's argument?

A. It provides only one cause for an event.
B. It uses historical narrative instead of historical fact.
C. It claims that correlation is the same as causation.
D. It ignores the importance of correlation.

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SUBMIT



Answer :

Final answer:

The politician's argument confuses correlation with causation, overlooking other influencing factors. Proper causation analysis involves more than just timing. Exploring alternate explanations is crucial in understanding causal relationships.


Explanation:

The politician's argument is flawed because it confuses correlation with causation. Just because the tax increase on banks was followed by bank robberies does not mean the tax increase caused the robberies. There could be other factors at play, such as economic conditions or pre-existing crime rates.

A proper analysis of causation requires consideration of variables beyond just timing, such as logical time ordering, mechanism, and non-spuriousness. Correlation between events does not definitively prove causation, and overlooking this distinction can lead to faulty conclusions.

When evaluating causal relationships, it's crucial to eliminate alternate explanations and explore all possible factors that could contribute to the observed events to avoid falling into the correlation-causation fallacy.


Learn more about Correlation and causation fallacy here:

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