Causality is a statistical topic that's often misunderstood and misapplied, largely because many assume that when two measures move together, one must be causing the other. You've already highlighted strong quantitative designs that truly test cause-and-effect.

Question:

Provide one short, clear paragraph explaining why a correlation between quantitative variables does not automatically imply a causal relationship. Drawing a verifiable insight from the following peer-reviewed resource.

Reference,

Zaniletti, I., Larson, D. R., Lewallen, D. G., Berry, D. J., & Maradit Kremers, H. (2023). How to Distinguish Correlation From Causation in Orthopaedic Research.The Journal of Arthroplasty,38(4), 634-637.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2022.11.019