Causality

When we evaluate something, we typically are trying to understand and make claims about causal relationships. When we create a system dynamics model, we are mapping and modeling causal relationships. But how do we tell what relationships are causal and which are correlational?

Thanks to a recent pointer on the evaltalk mailing list, here's Sir Austin Bradford Hill's “The Environment and Disease: Association or Causation?” Hill gives nine considerations to ponder.

For a rather shorter read, see xkcd's take on causality. Be sure to see the alt tag.