spurious correlation
1
8.7
- noun
- /ˈspjʊəriəs ˌkɔːrəˈleɪʃən/
- Specialized
:
correlación espuria
- Omitting age from the vehicle use equation could therefore induce a spurious correlation between fuel cost per mile and miles traveled, via their correlation with age.
Examples
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Researchers must be cautious of spurious correlations that may arise due to confounding factors in their data.
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Both could be caused by a third factor, or it could just be a spurious correlation, which means exactly nothing.
Blog text (19) -
This study's data have strengths that guard against the generation of spurious correlations.
Academic text (2012) -
Often, the proffered ranking is a spurious correlation, also known as lying with statistics.
Academic text (2009) -
To be sure, there is a correlation, an association, between poverty and these outcomes, but this association is what in the business we call a spurious correlation, meaning no direct causation between poverty and the outcomes.
Blog text (12) -
So yes, this is in fact a spurious correlation between drug-induced thiamine deficiency and ketogenic dieting.
Blog text (31) -
In statistical analysis, it is important to identify a spurious correlation to avoid incorrect conclusions about causation.
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The report highlighted a spurious correlation between ice cream sales and drowning incidents, emphasizing the influence of temperature.
How Causal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly built from 'spurious' (not genuine/false) + 'correlation' (an association between variables), so a learner who knows both words can infer it means a misleading or false association. While full statistical nuance (e.g. a lurking third variable causing the association) may require domain knowledge, the core meaning is transparently derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Spurious correlation joins spurious, meaning false, and correlation, meaning things that change together. Imagine ice cream sales and crime both rising in summer because warm weather makes both happen, so spurious correlation means a link that looks real but is not a true 'cause'.