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Updated: Oct 25, 2025

Perspectives on Neuroscience
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Perspectives on Neuroscience

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Is Causality a Necessary Tool for Understanding Our Universe, or Is It a Part of the Problem?

Martin Tamm1

  • 1Department of Mathematics, University of Stockholm, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.

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While variables are sometimes correlated because one does cause the other, it could also be that some other factor, a confounding variable, is actually causing the systematic movement in our variables of interest. For instance, as sales in ice cream increase, so does the overall rate of crime. Is it possible that indulging in your favorite flavor of ice cream could send you on a crime spree? Or, after committing crime do you think you might decide to treat yourself to a cone?
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