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Learn why ice cream sales and drowning deaths correlate, but ice cream doesn't cause drowning
Part of Data-Driven Decisions
Educational content slides
Observed pattern:
As ice cream sales increase → drowning deaths increase
As ice cream sales decrease → drowning deaths decrease
Perfect correlation!
Conclusion 1 (wrong): Ice cream causes drowning! Ban ice cream!
Conclusion 2 (wrong): Drowning makes people buy ice cream!
Reality: Summer weather causes BOTH. Hot weather = more swimming (drownings) AND more ice cream sales.
This hidden factor is called a confounding variable.
This is why correlation ≠ causation.
Test your understanding with this quiz.
Study shows students who play video games have higher test scores on average. What's the most likely explanation?
Complete this exercise and get AI-powered feedback.
Correlation-causation confusion is everywhere once you know to look for it.
Think about: Advice people give, headlines you see, patterns you notice. What's actually correlation masquerading as causation?
This reveals: How to think critically about cause-and-effect claims and design experiments to test them.