No, it doesn't. There is no connection between spending on science, space, and technology and suicides by hanging, strangulation and suffocation, and no logical argument to think that there would be. So although this graph shows that the two things are correlated, it is an example of a spurious correlation:
If a very large number of monkeys randomly strike keys on a typewriter for a very large amount of time, one will eventually produce a Shakespeare play. And similarly, if you dig around in data enough, you will eventually find things that look to be connected, which obviously aren't.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Another of my favorite examples of spurious correlation is usage of Internet Explorer versus the U.S. murder rate:
And the number people who drowned by falling into a swimming-pool against the number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in:
Spurious correlations are the reason why having a consistent, logical theory is important. If you think one thing is being caused by another and have data to show the two are connected, to make a credible case you need to be able to explain why they are connected, and give a theory that makes testable predictions about the relationship between the two things.
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
