Refers to the inability to legitimately deduce a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables solely on the basis of an observed association or correlation between them/
For any two correlated events, A and B, the different possible relationships include[citation needed]:
- A causes B (direct causation);
- B causes A (reverse causation);
- A and B are consequences of a common cause, but do not cause each other;
- A and B both cause C, which is (explicitly or implicitly) conditioned on;
- A causes B and B causes A (bidirectional or cyclic causation);
- A causes C which causes B (indirect causation);
- There is no connection between A and B; the correlation is a coincidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation