"Spurious Correlation" Demo

Question

Hi all,

happy new year!

A champion at one of my customers asked, if we have any Examples of "Spurious Correlation". The idea is to open the eyes of new users when analyzing data.

Some initial ideas and inspiration were Anscombes Quartett, or looking at only subsets of a dataset etc.

I actually think it is a great idea, but so far I don't have any good examples (except the two mentioned above).

Would be happy about inspiration or exchange on this topic!

Best regards from Heidelberg,

Florian

Jason_Wiggins · Accepted Answer

I used https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations in the six-sigma classes I taught. Some of the examples are pretty funny. My students and I both had a lot of fun with it.

mia_stephens · Accepted Answer

We've got a section on this, with some examples, in STIPS Module 5, in the Correlations lesson.

Phil_Kay · Accepted Answer

Hi Florian,

I created the attached example for a customer workshop. It was based on an example from a Discovery keynote by Chris Nachtsheim. It is more about the idea of a lurking variable / indirect causation.

It might be interesting for you to use.

Cheers,

Phil