Basic Trope: Something is thought to be the cause of something because it happened either before (post hoc ergo propter hoc) or at the same time as (cum hoc ergo propter hoc) the thing that it's suspected of causing.
- Straight:
- Alice tries lobster for the first time, then the next day, she gets hives. She assumes the lobster gave her hives.
- Alice sees a grey-haired teenager playing video games and concludes that video games make you go grey early.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice concludes that blinking caused her hives because she blinked before getting them.
- Alice sees a grey-haired teenager walking along, so she concludes that walking makes you go grey early.
- Downplayed:
- Alice eats something spicy and gets food poisoning and concludes that spicy food makes you sick. While it was the food that made her sick, it wasn't because it was spicy but rather because it was contaminated.
- Alice meets a grey-haired teenager whose mother is an alcoholic. She assumes the woman's alcoholism caused the boy's hair to turn grey, but in reality the grey hair was caused by prenatal stress, and she turned to alcohol to deal with her untreated OCD, which caused the prenatal stress. The mother was partly the cause, but not for the reason Alice thought.
- Justified:
- Alice is a bit shy of trying new foods, so when she breaks out in hives, she instinctively blames the weird new thing.
- Alice is suspicious of video games, so seeing a grey-haired teenager playing them just adds to her suspicion.
- Inverted:
- Alice somehow thinks that something happening before or at the same time as something debunks the idea that it caused it.
- Alice has eaten lobster 10 times and each time has come down with hives within hours, but refuses to acknowledge any possible connection.
- Subverted:
- "Maybe it was the lobster that caused my hives... no, that can't be it."
- "He must have grey hair because he plays video games... no, that's crazy."
- Double Subverted:
- "... It must have been that hot chocolate I drank with the lobster."
- "... His grey hair must actually be caused by that synthetic shirt he's wearing."
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged:
- Alice thinks of several possible causes for her hives, some involving things that happened the day before, some not.
- Alice thinks of several possible causes for the teen's grey hair, some involving stuff he's doing right now, some not.
- Averted: Alice does not blame the lobster for her hives, or the video games for the teenager's grey hair.
- Enforced: It's an educational series about Logical Fallacies.
- Lampshaded: "Correlation does not imply causation."
- Invoked:
- Bob tries to scare Alice off eating lobster by pointing out that the last time she ate it, she got hives the next day.
- The teenager tries to convince Alice that video games turned his hair grey as a prank.
- Exploited:
- "You don't want that lobster— you got hives the last time you ate it. I guess I'd better have it then!"
- Alice uses the grey-haired gaming teenager as part of her petition to ban video games.
- Defied: "Look, just because it happened before/at the same time, doesn't mean it's the reason."
- Discussed:
- "My daughter Alice went through a phase where she hated trying new foods. Woe betide me if she happened to get sick, even with a cold, after trying a new food because she was convinced the food had caused it."
- "My grey hair has caused me a lot of annoyance, from people calling me 'old-timer' to people who assume my habit of playing video games caused it."
- Conversed: "TV characters always conclude that if something happened before/at the same time as something else, that it caused it."
- Implied:
- Alice notices she has hives, then becomes nervous of trying new foods.
- Alice looks at the boy's hair, then looks fearfully towards the arcade.
- Played for Laughs: Correlation/Causation Gag.
- Played for Drama:
- Alice is a racist and assumes that Indian food makes people sick due to catching a disease in India.
- Alice doesn't allow her son Charles to play video games because she thinks they give you grey hair after seeing a grey-haired teen playing video games, which causes Charles to become distant from Alice.
- Played for Horror: A ghost story about a "cursed" object that was found in the ruins of burnt houses.
Back to False Cause if you dare! I once read that page, then broke out in hives!
