The danger of mixing up causality and correlation: Ionica Smeets at TEDxDelft

Ionica appears on De Wereld Draait Door to talk about mathematics; trying to explain the most complicated things and developments in the field of mathematics to the host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk and the audience. Even for the most mathematically challenged, it's educative and entertaining to listen to. In 2012 she became a reporter for KRO in a series called 'De Rekenkamer' investigating the financial aspects of giving blood and illegal minor immigrants.

Together with Bas Haring she wrote 'Vallende Kwartjes' which are essays in which scientific processes and concepts are explained with straight-forward, easy-to-get examples and stories. The science journalist has an eye for this sort of thing; defying and destroying the idea that science is boring and/or cannot be explained well.
In collaboration with Govert Schilling (amongst others) she also makes YouTube videos for the channel Science 101 (Wetenschap 101) where scientific and mathematic concepts are explained clearly in under 101 seconds!

She's charming, adds good natured comments and jokes to her writing and her live appearances (when Matthijs van Nieuwkerk asked her how she celebrated Pi Day, she answered 'by drinking Pina Colada's). What more could be asked for in a TEDxDelft performer?
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[joylokhande]

The way she is presenting this stuff is so adorable and amazing.

[dbmail]

Such a concise presentation of a very subtle concept. "Correlation is not causation" but that is not how our brains, which evolved as pattern recognition machines work.

[FunDreya]

Such a lovely presenter and delivery of an otherwise (when stripped down to its bones) boring and dry topic =))

[sf]

This was great, full of humor but well explained.

[MsVamsikrishna]

it's because of you i understood the difference corelation and casual .thank u very much

[mshigatiramadhani]

Very amazing the way she presents but also highlights the importance of the relationship of causality and correlation. Not every time to conclude on that

[Tom-spgy]

Fantastic talk! Absolutely beautifully presented! Kudos!

[ThomasBlekman]

Great talk.
Thanks to correlation we have been teaching entrepreneurship all wrong for years.
We seem to think it is a linear planning process were in fact it is an organic process of discovery. Now thanks to Saras Sarasvathy and Nobel price winner Herbert Simon we know better... Effectuation describes how expert entrepreneurs think decide and act.

[SeaMonkey]

This is true with an asterisk. While dangerous to short circuit from correlation to causation (as journalists often do), in Six Sigma analyses we use the set of correlations from which to begin our search for causative relationships. So correlations should not be summarily dismissed.

[jacksocks]

Clearly people need to stop eating ice cream while they're swimming.

[loregomezz]

very easy to understand this better and grab my attention completely with the way she presented this :)

[zachzwags]

We need to ban the weather to stop drowning

[RealtorAustin]

It's funny as I see the causality vs. correlation mistake in some TEDTalks - there's one I recall about food sensitivities by Robyn O'Brien which shows a few parallel plots and jumps to conclusions.

[vigneshsivashankar]

There is actually proof of bright or even dim light interfering with the circadian rhythm or sleep cycle.

[danielroy]

I love eating tomatoes, but I have read that people who were born in 1860 and ate tomatoes during their lifetimes have a mortality rate of 100 per cent. :-O  Are you sure there's no causality? ;-)

[wiskundemeisje]

I read a study where they tested self-esteem in third and sixth grade. High self-esteem in third grade was not a predictor for good grades in sixth grade. But good grades in third grade predicted higher self-esteem in sixth grade. So from this it seemed fair to conclude that good grades cause self-esteem and not the other way around.

[lambdd]

I was hoping she would go into what actually constitutes causality. I'm sure we're all aware of badly-written newspaper articles claiming causality for research that only shows correlation, but what would actually prove causality?

[hckoenig]

I would like to know how Ionica Smeets defines "causality" if not by correlation.

[larabbitatouille]

Thank you very much, I didn't know I needed this for my thesis. Thank you once again.

[iamtenderhearted]

Can anyone tell me what this song is at the beginning of this video?