Proven Evidence

Correlation is a valuable type of scientific evidence in fields such as medicine, psychology, and sociology. Correlations must first be confirmed as real, every possible causative relationship must be systematically explored. In the end correlation alone cannot be used as evidence for a cause-and-effect relationship between a treatment and benefit, a risk factor and a disease, or a social or economic factor and various outcomes. It's one of the most abused types of evidence, because it is easy and tempting to come to premature conclusions based upon the preliminary appearance of a correlation.