ABSTRACT
The human brain has evolved in an environment very different from the one we find ourselves in now. It has many quirks and limitations, which affect how we reason about data. This chapter looks at three problematic areas: (1) correlation vs causation, particularly when confusion arises due to outliers, confounders, and cause-and-effect reversal; (2) data dredging, also known as “p-hacking”; and (3) cognitive biases, particularly confirmation bias, optimism bias, and information bias.
