Apophenia : A tendency to perceive correlations between unrelated things, because your mind can only deal with tiny sample sizes and assuming things are correlated creates easy/comforting explanations of how the world works.

Watch for the correlation-and-causality trap. People have an innate desire to link cause and effect and are not beyond making up a cause for the effects they see. This creates the risk of observing a correlation—often the result of chance—and assuming causation. When you hear of a correlation, be sure to consider the three conditions: time preceden