NOTICE: This correlation is inactive

AI explanation

^{Show image generation prompt} Model: dalle-3
Prompt: Generate a cute cartoon image of a bustling baseball stadium on game day. The stands are filled with excited fans cheering on their teams. Some fans are lined up at the ticket counters, eager to get inside, while others are patiently waiting in long lines at the restroom facilities. As the game progresses, more fans are seen searching on their phones for "where to buy toilet paper" while waiting for their turn. The stadium is filled with energy and anticipation, creating a lively and humorous scene. The depiction should include only scenes, people, and objects, it should not include text or speech bubbles.

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This image generation prompt was also generated by AI, using the following sequence:

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You select one of a few potential scene descriptors that seems to go along with the situation described. You respond only with the scene descriptions provided and say nothing else.
User prompt: Here is a situation: Increased Total MLB League Revenue -> More fans attending games -> Longer lines at stadiums -> Increased awareness of restroom needs -> Increased Google searches for 'where to buy toilet paper'. Given that situation, which of the following image descriptions seems most appropriate? Pick the one that seems to be related to one of the variables at hand and the tone of the explanation. Please respond with only one of the following potential descriptions: A comic-book-style illustration with muted colors and a dotted halftone pattern from the 1960s Cute cartoon Cyber folk Cybernetic art Charcoal
ChatGPT: Cute cartoon

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You describe simple visual scenes that depict the two variables stated and the explanation described. Do not reference graphs or charts; describe physical objects.
User prompt: Please describe a visual scene that depicts the following situation. Keep the description simple. Increased Total MLB League Revenue -> More fans attending games -> Longer lines at stadiums -> Increased awareness of restroom needs -> Increased Google searches for 'where to buy toilet paper'
ChatGPT: A baseball stadium on game day with packed stands and fans lined up at the ticket counters. As the game progresses, the lines at the restroom facilities grow longer, prompting more fans to search on their phones for "where to buy toilet paper" while waiting.

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You write and improve image generation prompts for DALLE-3. You maintain the same subjects, but enhance the visuals.
User prompt: Please respond with an image generation prompt that would be likely to create an interesting visual using DALLE-3, using the following style: [ Cute cartoon ] and depicting this scene: A baseball stadium on game day with packed stands and fans lined up at the ticket counters. As the game progresses, the lines at the restroom facilities grow longer, prompting more fans to search on their phones for "where to buy toilet paper" while waiting. Keep the visual depiction simple. Do not include any words or speech bubbles.
ChatGPT: Generate a cute cartoon image of a bustling baseball stadium on game day. The stands are filled with excited fans cheering on their teams. Some fans are lined up at the ticket counters, eager to get inside, while others are patiently waiting in long lines at the restroom facilities. As the game progresses, more fans are seen searching on their phones for "where to buy toilet paper" while waiting for their turn. The stadium is filled with energy and anticipation, creating a lively and humorous scene.

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*Variations in the User Prompts from chart to chart are just the result of random number generation in Python. I wrote a few arrays of various styles and methods to ask questions to change up the results. Every time this site writes an explanation or generates an image, the script picks from each at random.

I sequence the requests into multiple prompts because I find GPT 3.5 to perform much better with short, well-managed contexts. Thus, I track the context directly in Python and only ask ChatGPT targeted questions.

AI academic paper

The Bottom Line: A Roll-ing Connection Between Total MLB League Revenue and Google Searches for 'Where to Buy Toilet Paper' The Journal of Quirky Economic Trends Jan 2024

Problem variable:	Which variable has a problem? Total MLB League Revenue Google searches for 'where to buy toilet paper' Neither / both
Issue:	What is the issue? The data is incorrect The chart isn't displaying properly There is a typo The source link is incorrect A calculation is wrong Something else
Additional details: Optional
Confirm you are a human:

Data details

Why this works

1. Data dredging: I have 25,153 variables in my database. I compare all these variables against each other to find ones that randomly match up. That's 632,673,409 correlation calculations! This is called “data dredging.” Instead of starting with a hypothesis and testing it, I instead abused the data to see what correlations shake out. It’s a dangerous way to go about analysis, because any sufficiently large dataset will yield strong correlations completely at random.
2. Lack of causal connection: There is probably^Note Because these pages are automatically generated, it's possible that the two variables you are viewing are in fact causually related. I take steps to prevent the obvious ones from showing on the site (I don't let data about the weather in one city correlate with the weather in a neighboring city, for example), but sometimes they still pop up. If they are related, cool! You found a loophole.
   no direct connection between these variables, despite what the AI says above. This is exacerbated by the fact that I used "Years" as the base variable. Lots of things happen in a year that are not related to each other! Most studies would use something like "one person" in stead of "one year" to be the "thing" studied.
3. Observations not independent: For many variables, sequential years are not independent of each other. If a population of people is continuously doing something every day, there is no reason to think they would suddenly change how they are doing that thing on January 1. A simple^Note Personally I don't find any p-value calculation to be 'simple,' but you know what I mean.
   p-value calculation does not take this into account, so mathematically it appears less probable than it really is.
4. Confounding variable: 2020 is particularly different from the other years on this graph. Confounding variables (like global pandemics) will cause two variables to look connected when in fact a "sneaky third" variable is influencing both of them behind the scenes.

Try it yourself

# These modules make it easier to perform the calculation
import numpy as np
from scipy import stats

# We'll define a function that we can call to return the correlation calculations
def calculate_correlation(array1, array2):

    # Calculate Pearson correlation coefficient and p-value
    correlation, p_value = stats.pearsonr(array1, array2)

    # Calculate R-squared as the square of the correlation coefficient
    r_squared = correlation**2

    return correlation, r_squared, p_value

# These are the arrays for the variables shown on this page, but you can modify them to be any two sets of numbers
array_1 = np.array([4.27,4.73,5.11,5.48,5.82,5.9,6.14,6.36,6.81,7.1,7.86,8.39,9.03,9.46,9.9,10.37,2020,9.56,])
array_2 = np.array([0.333333,0.583333,0.333333,0.0833333,0,0.333333,0.5,0.25,1,0.833333,1,1,1,1,1,1,12.5833,1,])
array_1_name = "Total MLB League Revenue"
array_2_name = "Google searches for 'where to buy toilet paper'"

# Perform the calculation
print(f"Calculating the correlation between {array_1_name} and {array_2_name}...")
correlation, r_squared, p_value = calculate_correlation(array_1, array_2)

# Print the results
print("Correlation Coefficient:", correlation)
print("R-squared:", r_squared)
print("P-value:", p_value)

Reuseable content

• High resolution line chart ^Note The image linked here is a Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG). It is the highest resolution that is possible to achieve. It scales up beyond the size of the observable universe without pixelating. You do not need to email me asking if I have a higher resolution image. I do not. The physical limitations of our universe prevent me from providing you with an image that is any higher resolution than this one.
  
  If you insert it into a PowerPoint presentation (a tool well-known for managing things that are the scale of the universe), you can right-click > "Ungroup" or "Create Shape" and then edit the lines and text directly. You can also change the colors this way.
  
  Alternatively you can use a tool like Inkscape.
  
• High resolution line chart, optimized for mobile
• Alternative high resolution line chart
• Scatterplot
• Portable line chart (png)
• Portable line chart (png), optimized for mobile
• Line chart for only Total MLB League Revenue
• Line chart for only Google searches for 'where to buy toilet paper'
• The spurious research paper: The Bottom Line: A Roll-ing Connection Between Total MLB League Revenue and Google Searches for 'Where to Buy Toilet Paper'