RE: Fan Death - A Curious Superstition
This phenomenon reminds me of why people can make the same connection between autism and vaccines.
In a book titled "Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases", the author included a story of how a kid was just about to be vaccinated, and just then, seconds before the syringe was inserted, the kid had his first ever seizure.
Of course, the cause was due to something else, but this seizure was the first of a life of seizures, and if the kid had gotten vaccinated just seconds later, there would be absolutely no convincing the parents of this kid that the vaccination was not the causal factor for his seizures, because until that moment, they'd never manifested.
Correlation does not equal causation. We must always remember that.
Absolutely. Sadly we are prone to such errors of cognition.
I would think that thier are times when Correlation does equal causation, though. The problem is determining if this is one of those times, except in your cicumstance it was clear the seizre happened before the shots. Thier are children whom have had vaccination shots and have had negative immune responses. I remember in school we all had just been vaccinated and me and a freind were playing in grade 7, I jokingly and lightly strangled him and he had a response to the vaccine shots around the same time. Some thought I actually was the cause until it was determines he was having a reaction to the vaccine. Now what happened to me was Correlation does not equal Causation but the vaccine reaction was clearly correlation which does equal Causation in that instance. Thier is so much grey to this world, nothing is ever Black and White.
No really, correlation does not equal causation. Are there instances where two correlated observations have a causal connection? Yes. But you can't go around assuming that because two things are correlated, that one caused the other.
That's the point of keeping it in mind. Never assume that two seemingly connected things are connected. It takes more than that. Preferably, it takes an experiment where one variable can be isolated. Science allows us to do that.
It is entirely true to say that not all milkshakes are chocolate. Are some milkshakes chocolate? Yes. But the point of reminding yourself that not all milkshakes are chocolate is to remember that there are other flavors, and that it would be stupid to just assume someone means chocolate every time they mention a milkshake.
You lost me on the milkshakes, where's the cause and correclation?
Then at what number of aware people do you see a correlation?
If you and I and a hundred other people come to a conclusion it needs to be investigated.
It may not always lead to causation but it is evidence that needs to be examined to be ruled out.
People used to say the same thing about the Cannabis Oil and now it has become common knowledge it does help with many things but we all had to wait for science to tell many of us something we already new. Kind of like the Milk Maids that contacted CowPox to find they were immune to Smallpox, I'm sure it began with Correlation does not equal Causation but eventually it was proven otherwise their was . If no one looked into this correlation we would have never know, it all has to Begin somewhere to find the cause.
A very good example but you just looked at one side of the coin. The psychology of that babe with seeing a syringe or need or any other vaccination instrument could also have led to the seizure.
For a comprehensive evaluation of such cases, I will recommend that psychology be considered as a factor also.