MEPX
Chapter 9 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What correlation measures
  2. 2The five explanations
  3. 3Confounders
  4. 4Experiments
  5. 5Natural experiments
  6. 6Weighing causal evidence
  7. 7Selection effects
  8. 8Regression to the mean
  9. 9Language and reporting
  10. 10Acting under uncertainty

Chapter 9 of 10

Language and reporting

Words that carry claims.

Precision

Associated with, predicts, is linked to and causes are different claims. Headlines routinely upgrade the first three to the last, sometimes without the researchers.

  • Read the study design, not the headline: was anything randomised?
  • Note whether the outcome measured is the one being claimed.

Writing it honestly

State the design, the alternatives you could not exclude and the strength of the inference. Overclaiming once costs credibility on everything that follows.