![]() | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (September 2011) |
The questionable cause—also known as causal fallacy, false cause, or non causa pro causa ("non-cause for cause" in Latin)—is a category of informal fallacies in which the cause or causes is/are incorrectly identified. In other words, it is a fallacy of reaching a conclusion that one thing caused another, simply because they are regularly associated.
Questionable cause can be logically reduced to: "A is regularly associated with B; therefore, A causes B."[1]
For example: "Every time I score an A on the test its a sunny day. Therefore the sunny day causes me to score well on the test." Here is the example the two events may coincide or correlate, but have no causal connection.[2]
Fallacies of questionable cause include: