Association (statistics)
In statistics, an association (statistics) comes from two variables who are related. Many people confuse association with causation. Association DOES NOT imply causation.
For example, the United Nations did a study of government failure - when governments fall or are overthrown. The best indicator of a government about to fall was the infant mortality rate. The dead children do not cause the government to fall, rather they are joint effects of a common cause.
Another example is ice cream consumption and murder. Did you know that the sales of ice cream and murder are strongly positively correlated? Which causes which: does eating ice cream cause murder or does murder make people eat ice cream? The answer is neither -- ice cream consumption and murder are both at least partially caused by hot weather.
Several tests can be used to determine association. The P test, t-test, and chi-squared test are the most common.
