The technical term for this missing (often unobserved) variable Z is “omitted variable”. The first reason why correlation may not equal causation is that there is some third variable (Z) that affects both X and Y at the same time, making X and Y move together. Given this, let’s look at reasons why correlation does not imply causation.Ĥ Reasons Why Correlation ≠ Causation (1) We’re missing an important factor (Omitted variable) It certainly got the attention of the internet at the time! Third, despite its non-causal nature, the results of the study are arguably still interesting.
Second, this led to some backlash from readers who warned the author of the Gawker article to be careful about conflating correlation and causation. First, the study primarily focuses on correlations, but the relationship was interpreted as a causal relationship by the press. The study and the corresponding (mis)interpretation of its results in the Gawker article are good examples of the “correlation does not imply causation” maxim at work. He writes that, like existing studies, disentangling correlation from causation is difficult: “it is unclear whether this correlation represents a causal relationship… since the current findings are strictly applicable only to the time, place, individual characteristics from which the sample was drawn, we should highlight that the reported results are simply an indication of the relationship between sexual activity and wages but are by no means the final word.”
To be clear, Dryadkis does not claim that his study shows that more sex causes higher income. In his study, Drydakis examines the relationship between the frequency of sexual intercourse and income among 7,500 Greek households (not German households, as the Gawker article states). The Gawker article was based on a study by Nick Drydakis, an Economics professor at Anglia Ruskin University, called “ The Effect of Sexual Activity on Wages”. The author Max Rivlin-Nadler writes: “Scientists… found that people who have sex more than four times a week receive a 3.2 percent higher paycheck than those who have sex only once a week. In the summer of 2013, an article was published on with the headline “More Buck For Your Bang: People Who Have More Sex Make The Most Money”. To illustrate how we can distinguish between correlation and causation, let’s look at an article that claims that more sex causes higher income.
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