One of the most common fallacies is to confuse correlation with causation, but the two are actually distinct. My demonstrating that construction of snowmen and outbreak of acne occur simultaneously does not mean that snowmen produce acne. It may imply an underlying matter, such as the snow itself may contain some component that may instigate the outbreak, or the children who build the snowmen may be particularly vulnerable to acne, and during that period of the year, and so forth. Two factors happening concurrently, does not mean that one influences the other.

Readers may also take the percentage face blank unaware of the notion of margin of error. Margin of error implies that the data shows only an approximate result of the sampled population (usually 95%). There is a certain percentage of error either way, and so the end results can only be approximate, never absolutely certain.

Using statistics in...
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