When my son was two, we were out walking one day when he said, “Wanna see flatbed truck.” Moments later, one passed by. He was thrilled. “Wanna see bronnasauwus!” I couldn’t explain about correlation and causation, but I did make him understand that there weren’t any more brontauruses.
“All right. Wanna see T. Rex!”
“A little boy I know thought that only balloons attached to strings would float. He knew that balloons without strings did not float. He said that to keep a balloon from floating away, people should cut off its string.”
Off topic a bit but years ago my brother would mark his camping area at a music fest with a large (maybe 5’ diameter), helium-filled weather balloon. He filled it and occasionally topped it off at his remotely parked car. Walking to and from the car he tied the “string” (actually a rope) around his waist and then held the rope like any other balloon with the balloon floating over his head. It wasn’t unusual for people to ask him if the balloon would pick him up if he let go of the rope! Granted, there was a fair amount of substance abuse going on.
There was a fellow on the Titanic who was sitting on the toilet on the night of the fateful disaster. He finished his business and the daily newsletter at the same time, and just as he pressed the handle to flush, the ship had a terrible lurch and sank hours later.
He survived the accident but never lived down the guilt.
When the heroic Florida Gators played Florida State’s evil football team in November, I was working on a jigsaw puzzle off and on. Whenever I was working on it (the beginning and end of the game), the Gators were doing very well. When I wasn’t working on it (the middle of the game), they were playing very poorly. The jigsaw puzzle must have been the key to victory.
That’s probably the best example. It covers a lot more ground.
Haven’t read the whole thread. I know there have been a few xkcd links and so sorry if this one has been already given but it is a favourite.
My favorite example, courtesy of Darrell Huff, How to Lie With Statistics (an excellent book!), is (paraphrasing here) someone noticed a positive correlation between Massachusetts minister’s salaries and the price of rum in Havana.
Which leads to the obvious question, are the ministers supporting the rum trade or benefiting from it?
That’s just superstition. Superstition is a dumb holdover from our primitive days. We should have evolved outs of it long ago. Except in sports and gambling. Then it’s real.