Jokes aside, I'm genuinely curious: why do you think people mix up correlation and causation so easily, even when they know the difference in theory?

My guess is that our brain is basically a pattern-matching machine: spotting "A happens, then B happens" kept our ancestors alive, and checking for confounders didn't. A story with a cause feels much better than "it's just noise".

As an Italian I see this every day: we have a whole culture of "scaramanzia". Never say "good luck" before an exam, the number 17 is unlucky, and plenty of people make the horn gesture when someone mentions bad news. Most people don't really believe it... but nobody wants to be the one who tests it before an important match. 😅

Is it the same where you're from? What's the most absurd "correlation = causation" belief you've seen, in daily life?

As a second year statistics masters student I feel alone in my beliefs

A 2014 study found that 30% of statistics are fake. This one, by the way, is part of the 60% of them that are real. 10% of statistics are statistics, and 20% of them are cows. After testing on 4 scissors, we have found that 100% of scissors contain Uranium. 50% of statistics have a 25% chance of being real, while 20% of statistics have a 175% chance of being real. 2% of car crashes are caused by statistics.

Yes, I am a bit late with this meme

Moon phase influence on people experiencing "weird" symptoms as determined by Google search activity.