Suppose a study shows, When ice cream consumption rises in the summer, so does the number of shark attacks. What could be the correlation between them ?
Answers
Answer :
Business Dictionary defines 'spurious correlation' as 'A mathematical relationship between two variables that do not result from any direct relationship but is wrongly inferred to be related to each other. The false assumption of correlation may be attributed to coincidence or to another unseen factor. '
In the given example, increased ice cream consumption and the rise in the number of shark attacks are not directly related. However, ice cream consumption and the number of shark attacks rise during the summer season and, thus, both of them are casually dependent on the third factor, the rise in temperature during summers. Thus, there is a spurious correlation between increased ice cream consumption and the rise in the number of shark attacks.