Causality vs. Correlation — What's the Difference?

Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is influence by which one event, process, state or object (a cause) contributes to the production of another event, process, state or object (an effect) where the cause is partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is partly dependent on the cause. In general, a process has many causes, which are also said to be causal factors for it, and all lie in its past.

In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. In the broadest sense correlation is any statistical association, though it commonly refers to the degree to which a pair of variables are linearly related.

The relationship between cause and effect.

A relationship or connection between two things based on co-occurrence or pattern of change

The principle that everything has a cause.

(Statistics) The tendency for two values or variables to change together, in either the same or opposite way

The principle of or relationship between cause and effect.

An act of correlating or the condition of being correlated.

A causal agency, force, or quality.

A reciprocal, parallel or complementary relationship between two or more comparable objects.

The agency of a cause; the action or power of a cause, in producing its effect.

(statistics) One of the several measures of the linear statistical relationship between two random variables, indicating both the strength and direction of the relationship.

The relationship between something that happens or exists and the thing that causes it; the cause and consequence relationship.

(algebra) An isomorphism from a projective space to the dual of a projective space, often to the dual of itself.

The agency of a cause; the action or power of a cause, in producing its effect.

Reciprocal relation; corresponding similarity or parallelism of relation or law; capacity of being converted into, or of giving place to, one another, under certain conditions; as, the correlation of forces, or of zymotic diseases.

The faculty of tracing effects to their causes.

A reciprocal relation between two or more things

The relation between causes and effects

A statistic representing how closely two variables co-vary; it can vary from -1 (perfect negative correlation) through 0 (no correlation) to +1 (perfect positive correlation);

A statistical relation between two or more variables such that systematic changes in the value of one variable are accompanied by systematic changes in the other