An epiphenomenon is when a thing happening is strongly correlated with another thing happening but doesn’t cause it.
Because of causal opacity, it is hard to distinguish genuine causes from mere correlations — which means many things we treat as causes are probably just epiphenomena.
Things People Actually Believe
Cholesterol doesn’t seem to cause cardiovascular disease. Salt doesn’t seem to raise blood pressure. Education doesn’t seem to raise national wealth. Reading to children at night doesn’t seem to raise their literacy.
Things Nobody Believes
A compass steers a ship.