The Wrong direction reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Wrong direction

For thoughtful child sponsors
Wrong direction is a logical fallacy of causation where cause and effect are reversed. The cause is said to be the effect and vice versa.

For instance, a tobacco company executive once suggested that cancer caused smoking as a matter of pain relief, to explain the high correlation between them.

In other cases it may simply be unclear which is the cause and which is the effect. For example:

Children that watch a lot of TV are the most violent. Clearly, TV makes children more violent.

This could easily be the other way round; that is, violent children like watching more TV than less violent ones.

See also: joint effect.

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