February 20, 2004

Conflating Correlation and Causation

To the Editor:

After reading Dalton Conley's piece on recent developments in social-science research ("The Data in Your Lap: How to Interpret Naturally Occurring Experiments," The Review, December 19), I can only anticipate what other breakthroughs in human knowledge await us in upcoming issues. The world is round? Organisms invisible to the naked eye often cause disease? Conscious choices may be influenced by unconscious motives?

My point is that the important distinction