Question

(Causation and Correlation) Many professors notice that the students who sit in the first or second row in the classroom frequently earn higher grades in the course than students who sit towards the back of the classroom. Should professors view this relationship as one of causation? As one of correlation? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

When we talk about causation,we talk about cause and effect,that is what is the cause of a particular effect,what is the reason for something,while correlation simply looks at relationship or movement between variables,now there could be correlation but that could be random or owing to a variable which is effecting both these variables,so a correlation does not imply causation,now let us look at the given case,here professors notice that students sitting in first or second row frequently earn higher grades than students sitting in back,now this does not mean students sitting in front row is the reason for them getting higher grades,it could be that it is a mere coincidence or it is possible that students sit in front row so that they can pay attention to topic and same students are hard working too,so these two things could be of a result of something else too,another reason could be people sitting in front rows wants to take notes and that is why they sit at front and owing to these notes they get higher grades,however this does not imply causation between sitting in front and getting higher grades,so here professors should look at it as a case of correlation and not causation because this correlation could be a mere coincidence or could be a result of some other factor such as note taking exercise.