There are many terms for this kind of mistake in social science research, complete with academic jargon and overly complicated phrasing. It is all too easy to view a coincidence or a complicated relationship and make false or overly simplistic assumptions in research-just as it is easy to connect two events or thoughts that occur around the same time when there are no real ties between them. The refrain “correlation does not equal causation!” is a familiar one to any student of psychology or the social sciences. This tendency to make connections where there is no true relationship is the basis of a common problem when it comes to interpreting research: the assumption that because two variables are correlated, one causes or leads to the other. Our brains are predisposed to making connections between thoughts, ideas, actions, and consequences, whether they are truly connected or not. It can be surprisingly easy to create faulty connections in the brain. It’s not that your brain is purposely lying to you, it’s just that it may have developed some faulty or non-helpful connections over time. However, there are some occasions when you may want to second guess what your brain is telling you. Generally, this is a good thing-our brain has been wired to alert us to danger, attract us to potential mates, and find solutions to the problems we encounter every day.
After all, if you can’t trust your own brain, what can you trust? We tend to trust what goes on in our brains.
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