The more the US eats margarine, the lower the divorce rate in Maine

For a lot of research you’ll see the term “correlation does not imply causation“. Tyler Vigen has created a website called Spurious Correlations that shows correlations between data that are not normally related. Along with margarine consumption correlating with the divorce rate in Maine, the consumption of mozzarella cheese correlates with the number of civil engineering doctorates awarded in the US.

The next time you need to explain that correlation does not imply causation, send along a link to Spurious Correlations.