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Episode 453: What Causes What?

W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

What causes what? The human brain is programmed to answer this question constantly. This how we survive. What made that noise? Bear made that noise. What caused my hand to hurt? Fire caused my hand to hurt.

We are so eager to figure what causes what — that we often get it wrong. I wore my lucky hat to the game. My team won. Therefore, my lucky hat caused my team to win.

On today's show we dive deep into the world of correlation and causation with Charles Wheelan, author of the new book, Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data.

Read more:

Using Terror Alert Levels To Estimate The Effect Of Police On Crime

Estimating The Payoff To Attending A More Selective College

Subscribe to the podcast. Music: Booka Shade's "Numbers (DJ-Kicks)." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

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