Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
Type
Informal
AKA
After this, therefore because of this, Post Hoc (after this), False Cause, Correlation vs Causation
Description
Assuming that because one event followed another, the first caused the second.
Examples
- "I wore my lucky socks and we won—so they must be the reason."
- "She got sick after the vaccine, so the vaccine caused it."
- "He took the remedy and got better, so the remedy works." (See Homeopathy and Regression to the mean.)
- "5G was switched on and then people fell ill." (See 5G Towers.)
Notes
- The fallacy is the engine of most pseudo-medicine and a good deal of conspiracy belief. The MMR vaccine is given at the age when autism is typically first noticed; the two events follow one another in time and are unrelated in cause.
- The defence is the one science uses: a control group. If those who did not receive the intervention fared the same, the sequence was coincidence.