Spurious correlation #1,767 · View random
A linear line chart with years as the X-axis and two variables on the Y-axis. The first variable is Popularity of the first name Kendall and the second variable is The number of actors in Minnesota. The chart goes from 2003 to 2022, and the two variables track closely in value over that time.

A linear line chart with years as the X-axis and two variables on the Y-axis. The first variable is Popularity of the first name Kendall and the second variable is The number of actors in Minnesota. The chart goes from 2003 to 2022, and the two variables track closely in value over that time.

Download png, svg

AI explanation

Perhaps as the name Kendall fell out of favor, parents were less inclined to name their children after the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star, Kendall Jenner. With fewer aspiring actors carrying the name, there was a noticeable decline in the overall acting population in Minnesota. It seems like the state just couldn't keep up with the Kendalls anymore!

^{Show image generation prompt} Model: dalle-3
Prompt: Generate an image in the style of Art Nouveau that captures the bustling atmosphere of a theater in Minnesota. The scene should prominently feature a grand marquee bearing the glowing name "Kendall," drawing in a throng of excited theatergoers. Inside the ornate theater, a group of talented actors from Minnesota prepare to grace the stage, while an eager audience fills the seats, eagerly anticipating the start of the performance. The image should exude the elegant, flowing lines and intricate patterns characteristic of Art Nouveau, capturing the energy and anticipation of the theater setting. The depiction should include only scenes, people, and objects, it should not include text or speech bubbles.

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 variables described. You respond only with the scene descriptions provided and say nothing else.
User prompt: Here are two variables: Popularity of the first name Kendall and The number of actors in Minnesota. Given these, which of the following image style descriptions seems most appropriate? Pick the one that seems to be related to one of the variables at hand. Please respond with only one of the following potential descriptions: Oragami Cyberpunk Voxel art Art nouveau Steampunk
ChatGPT: Art nouveau

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You describe simple visual scenes that depict the two variables stated. You combine both variables into one scene.
User prompt: Please describe a visual scene that prominently depicts both Popularity of the first name Kendall and The number of actors in Minnesota together. Keep the description simple.
ChatGPT: In a bustling theater in Minnesota, a marquee proudly displays the name "Kendall" in bright lights, drawing a large crowd of theatergoers eager to see the popular play. Inside, a group of talented actors from Minnesota eagerly prepare to take the stage, as the enthusiastic audience eagerly awaits the start of the performance.

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: [ Art nouveau ] and depicting this scene: In a bustling theater in Minnesota, a marquee proudly displays the name "Kendall" in bright lights, drawing a large crowd of theatergoers eager to see the popular play. Inside, a group of talented actors from Minnesota eagerly prepare to take the stage, as the enthusiastic audience eagerly awaits the start of the performance. Keep the visual depiction simple. Do not include any words or speech bubbles.
ChatGPT: Generate an image in the style of Art Nouveau that captures the bustling atmosphere of a theater in Minnesota. The scene should prominently feature a grand marquee bearing the glowing name "Kendall," drawing in a throng of excited theatergoers. Inside the ornate theater, a group of talented actors from Minnesota prepare to grace the stage, while an eager audience fills the seats, eagerly anticipating the start of the performance. The image should exude the elegant, flowing lines and intricate patterns characteristic of Art Nouveau, capturing the energy and anticipation of the theater setting.

*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.
^{Show prompt for explanation} Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106 (fine-tuned)
System prompt: You provide humorous responses in the form of plausible sounding explanations for correlations. You assume the correlation is causative for the purpose of the explanation even if it is ridiculous. You do not chat with the user, you only reply with the causal connection explanation and nothing else.
User prompt: Please make up a funny explanation for how a decrease in Popularity of the first name Kendall caused The number of actors in Minnesota to decrease. Include one good pun.

AI academic paper

(Because p < 0.01)

Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota

Journal of Whimsical Sociological Studies

Jan 2024

Reminder: This paper is AI-generated. Not real!

^{Show prompt used to generate this paper} Quick note: This sequence is long and repetitive. That's how the prompt engineering works for this one. I manage the output in Python to format it into this PDF.

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You are a dry but witty academic researcher. You speak in the passive voice, and your writing sounds like it belongs in a medical or economics journal.You draft a literature review section of an academic research paper, that starts out dry for the first few sentences but then becomes hilarious and goofy.
User prompt:
Pretend you are an academic researcher. Your writing sounds like it belongs in a medical or economics journal. However, you frequently crack jokes, make puns, or add unexpected twists in your writing.

Please make up a literature review section of an academic research paper presenting the findings of the connection between Popularity of the first name Kendall and The number of actors in Minnesota. You can't resist a good dad joke. Add a relevant dad joke related to the content every couple of sentences.

Speak in the present tense for this section (the authors find...), as is common in academic research paper literature reviews. Name the sources in a format similar to this: In "Book," the authors find lorem and ipsum.

Make up the lorem and ipsum part, but make it sound related to the topic at hand.

Start by naming serious-sounding studies by authors like Smith, Doe, and Jones - but then quickly devolve. Name some real non-fiction books that would be related to the topic. Then name some real fiction books that sound like they could be related. Then devolve ever further, and mention something completely ridiculous, like you conducted literature review by reading the backs of shampoo bottles.

Here is the title and abstract of the paper:
[[TITLE]]
Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota

[[ABSTRACT]]
This research paper investigates the peculiar relationship between the popularity of the first name Kendall and the number of actors employed in the state of Minnesota. Utilizing data from the US Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a correlation coefficient of 0.8377399 with a significance level of p < 0.01 was discovered for the time period spanning from 2003 to 2022.

The study found that as the popularity of the name Kendall increased, so did the number of actors in the land of 10,000 lakes. This intriguing correlation raises the question: does the name Kendall possess some charismatic allure that draws individuals to the performing arts, or is it merely a whimsical coincidence? In any case, it seems that the state of Minnesota holds a special place in the hearts of individuals bearing the moniker Kendall. Perhaps we could say that the name Kendall is "act"ually quite influential!

-------

And here is the introduction section that led to this literature review:
[[INTRODUCTION]]
The human inclination toward nomenclature, or the assigning of names, has long been a subject of fascination and humor. The impact of a name on an individual's fate or life choices is a matter of considerable debate, with some arguing that a name can shape a person's destiny, while others dismiss such notions as mere "nomenclature nonsense." Nevertheless, the potential influence of a name on one's career path has not escaped the attention of researchers. It is as if one's name not only precedes them but also paves the way for their future endeavors.
Hence, our investigation delves into the curious correlation between the popularity of the given name Kendall and the number of actors in Minnesota. This study aims to shed light on the enigmatic allure of the name Kendall and its possible impact on the choice of occupation, particularly within the domain of performing arts. And now, without further ado, let's dive right into the "Kendall-ing" of this intriguing phenomenon. But don't worry, we promise to keep the "drama" to a minimum.
The relationship between a name and a profession may seem as distant and unrelated as a stand-up comedian at a classical music concert. However, as we unravel the data and embark on this "name game," we just might discover that the name Kendall holds more sway over Minnesota's actors than one might suspect. We shall endeavor to present our findings with the seriousness befitting a scholarly pursuit, but with a hint of levity – a sprinkle of "dramedy," if you will. Because, after all, what is research without a touch of amusement?

-------

Your response should start like this:

[[LITERATURE REVIEW]]

ChatGPT:
[[LITERATURE REVIEW]]

Smith and Jones (2007) investigated the influence of given names on career choices and found no discernible correlation between the popularity of a name and the selection of a particular occupation. However, Doe et al. (2014) observed a curious trend in their study, which suggested a potential connection between individuals with the first name Kendall and the performing arts. Their findings hinted at a heightened propensity for individuals bearing the name Kendall to pursue careers in acting or related fields. These initial studies set the stage for our exploration into the correlation between the popularity of the name Kendall and the population of performers in Minnesota.

In "The Name Game: A Study of Nomenclature and Destiny," the authors propose that a person's name may indeed influence their life choices to a certain extent, spawning the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. This notion opens the door to the possibility that individuals bearing the name Kendall might be subconsciously drawn to the limelight of the stage or screen. It seems that for those with the name Kendall, the world may indeed be a stage, and the men and women merely its actors. You might even say there's a bit of "Shakespearean drama" attached to this phenomenon.

"The Art of Naming: The Power of Labels and Titles in Shaping Identity" explores the psychological and sociological impacts of names on individuals. It delves into the concept of "nominative determinism," suggesting that a person's name may subtly influence their choices and behavior. Perhaps the name Kendall possesses a certain enigmatic charm that beckons individuals to embrace the performing arts. It appears that for those named Kendall, the siren call of the stage might be particularly irresistible. Maybe we could say that the name Kendall is quite the "stage name" indeed.

As we venture further into the realm of literature, we encounter fiction works that may offer insights, albeit in a more lighthearted manner. In "Theatre Tales of Minnesota," the author spins fanciful yarns of thespians and the wonders of the stage in the North Star State. While purely fictional, one can't help but wonder if there's a hint of truth in the notion that the name Kendall holds a mysterious sway over the world of acting in Minnesota. Could it be that individuals named Kendall are destined to grace the stage in the land of lakes? It's almost as if the name Kendall has a flair for the dramatic.

In a truly scientific pursuit of knowledge, the researchers conducted an exhaustive review of literature, including perusal of works often overlooked in academic circles. Alas, such an endeavor led to the unexpected revelation that the literature on the correlation between the popularity of the name Kendall and the population of performers in Minnesota was quite limited. If one were to extend the metaphor, it would seem that this exploration reached the end of the script and stumbled upon the outtakes or bonus features. Undeterred, the researchers turned to diverse sources, including the backs of shampoo bottles, in a creative attempt to uncover any semblance of relevance. Though this unconventional approach may raise some eyebrows, it does bring to mind an unexpected question: if the name Kendall were a shampoo, would it promise "dramatic volume"?

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You are a dry but witty academic researcher. You speak in the passive voice, and your writing sounds like it belongs in a medical or economics journal.You draft the discussion section of an academic research paper.
User prompt:
Pretend you are an academic researcher. Your writing sounds like it belongs in a medical or economics journal. However, you frequently crack jokes, make puns, or add unexpected twists in your writing.

Please make up the discussion section of an academic research paper presenting the findings of the connection between Popularity of the first name Kendall and The number of actors in Minnesota. You can't resist a good dad joke. Add a relevant dad joke related to the content every couple of sentences.

Limit your response to 500 tokens.

Here are the title, abstract, literature review, and results sections. Please harken back to 1-2 of the goofy items in the literature review, but pretend to take them completely seriously. Discuss how your results supported the prior research.

Do not write a conclusion. I will add a conclusion after this.

[[TITLE]]
Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota

[[ABSTRACT]]
This research paper investigates the peculiar relationship between the popularity of the first name Kendall and the number of actors employed in the state of Minnesota. Utilizing data from the US Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a correlation coefficient of 0.8377399 with a significance level of p < 0.01 was discovered for the time period spanning from 2003 to 2022.

The study found that as the popularity of the name Kendall increased, so did the number of actors in the land of 10,000 lakes. This intriguing correlation raises the question: does the name Kendall possess some charismatic allure that draws individuals to the performing arts, or is it merely a whimsical coincidence? In any case, it seems that the state of Minnesota holds a special place in the hearts of individuals bearing the moniker Kendall. Perhaps we could say that the name Kendall is "act"ually quite influential!

[[LITERATURE REVIEW]]
Smith and Jones (2007) investigated the influence of given names on career choices and found no discernible correlation between the popularity of a name and the selection of a particular occupation. However, Doe et al. (2014) observed a curious trend in their study, which suggested a potential connection between individuals with the first name Kendall and the performing arts. Their findings hinted at a heightened propensity for individuals bearing the name Kendall to pursue careers in acting or related fields. These initial studies set the stage for our exploration into the correlation between the popularity of the name Kendall and the population of performers in Minnesota.
In "The Name Game: A Study of Nomenclature and Destiny," the authors propose that a person's name may indeed influence their life choices to a certain extent, spawning the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. This notion opens the door to the possibility that individuals bearing the name Kendall might be subconsciously drawn to the limelight of the stage or screen. It seems that for those with the name Kendall, the world may indeed be a stage, and the men and women merely its actors. You might even say there's a bit of "Shakespearean drama" attached to this phenomenon.
"The Art of Naming: The Power of Labels and Titles in Shaping Identity" explores the psychological and sociological impacts of names on individuals. It delves into the concept of "nominative determinism," suggesting that a person's name may subtly influence their choices and behavior. Perhaps the name Kendall possesses a certain enigmatic charm that beckons individuals to embrace the performing arts. It appears that for those named Kendall, the siren call of the stage might be particularly irresistible. Maybe we could say that the name Kendall is quite the "stage name" indeed.
As we venture further into the realm of literature, we encounter fiction works that may offer insights, albeit in a more lighthearted manner. In "Theatre Tales of Minnesota," the author spins fanciful yarns of thespians and the wonders of the stage in the North Star State. While purely fictional, one can't help but wonder if there's a hint of truth in the notion that the name Kendall holds a mysterious sway over the world of acting in Minnesota. Could it be that individuals named Kendall are destined to grace the stage in the land of lakes? It's almost as if the name Kendall has a flair for the dramatic.
In a truly scientific pursuit of knowledge, the researchers conducted an exhaustive review of literature, including perusal of works often overlooked in academic circles. Alas, such an endeavor led to the unexpected revelation that the literature on the correlation between the popularity of the name Kendall and the population of performers in Minnesota was quite limited. If one were to extend the metaphor, it would seem that this exploration reached the end of the script and stumbled upon the outtakes or bonus features. Undeterred, the researchers turned to diverse sources, including the backs of shampoo bottles, in a creative attempt to uncover any semblance of relevance. Though this unconventional approach may raise some eyebrows, it does bring to mind an unexpected question: if the name Kendall were a shampoo, would it promise "dramatic volume"?

[[RESULTS]]
The analysis of the data revealed a strong positive correlation between the popularity of the first name Kendall and the number of actors employed in the state of Minnesota for the time period from 2003 to 2022. The correlation coefficient of 0.8377399 indicates a robust relationship between these two variables, suggesting that as the popularity of the name Kendall increased, so did the number of actors in Minnesota.
It appears that there is something about the name Kendall that exerts a magnetic pull toward the performing arts in the land of 10,000 lakes. One might even say that individuals bearing this name are "Kendall-ing" toward a career in acting! Because, you know, what's a research paper without a little wordplay?
The r-squared value of 0.7018081 further reinforces the strength of the relationship, indicating that approximately 70.2% of the variation in the number of actors in Minnesota can be explained by the popularity of the name Kendall. This suggests a substantial degree of influence wielded by the name Kendall over the occupational choices of individuals in the performing arts industry in Minnesota.
As we gaze upon the scatterplot (Fig. 1), which succinctly captures the robust correlation between the two variables, one cannot help but marvel at the influence of a name on the career trajectories of individuals. It seems that the allure of the name Kendall extends far beyond mere coincidence, establishing a veritable "Kendall effect" on the performers of Minnesota.
In conclusion, our findings illuminate a previously unnoticed association between the popularity of the name Kendall and the number of actors in Minnesota, suggesting that the influence of a name transcends the realm of mere nomenclature. So, the next time someone mentions the name Kendall, perhaps we should "act" surprised at its potential impact on career choices!

-------

Your response should start like this:

[[DISCUSSION]]

ChatGPT:

[[DISCUSSION]]

The results of this study suggest a compelling connection between the popularity of the first name Kendall and the number of actors employed in the state of Minnesota. The robust correlation coefficient of 0.8377399 with a significance level of p < 0.01 supports the hypothesis that an increase in the prevalence of the name Kendall coincides with a rise in the number of actors in the land of 10,000 lakes. It appears that the name Kendall wields a certain "theatrical influence" when it comes to career choices within the performing arts industry. Perhaps we could call it the "Kendall-acting effect"!

These findings corroborate the observations of Doe et al. (2014), who hinted at a potential association between individuals with the first name Kendall and a proclivity for pursuing careers in acting or related fields. It seems that their inkling was more than just a stage whisper – it was indeed a resounding declaration of a significant correlation. One might even say that their scholarly foresight was acting as a guiding "light," illuminating this intriguing phenomenon.

Additionally, the r-squared value of 0.7018081 underscores the substantial influence exerted by the name Kendall on the number of actors in Minnesota. This further substantiates the notion that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the impact of a name on individuals' occupational choices. The allure of the name Kendall, it seems, may "dramatically shape" the career trajectories of those involved in the performing arts industry.

Moreover, this study extends the existing literature on the influence of given names on career choices by providing compelling evidence of the "Kendall phenomenon." It appears that the name Kendall indeed possesses an ineffable charm that beckons individuals to the stage, supporting the concept of nominative determinism put forth in "The Art of Naming: The Power of Labels and Titles in Shaping Identity." It seems that for individuals with the name Kendall, the stage is not just a platform for performance – it's a place to "Kendall out" and shine!

In summary, the correlation between the popularity of the name Kendall and the population of performers in Minnesota sheds light on the intriguing interplay between nomenclature and career choices. This study reinforces the notion that a name may wield an influence beyond mere label, teasing at the mysterious ways in which our identity and choices may be subtly guided by the strings of nomenclature. So, the next time someone mentions the name Kendall, one cannot help but wonder if a career in the spotlight is "Kendall-ing" them toward greatness!

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You provide fictional names of academic journals. You say nothing else, and you do not chat with the user.
User prompt: Please provide the name of a funny but plausible sounding research, scientific, or academic journal that would publish a paper entited Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota. Respond only with the name of a fictional academic journal.

ChatGPT:

Journal of Whimsical Sociological Studies

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You provide fictional names of nonprofit research organizations and associations. You say nothing else, and you do not chat with the user.
User prompt: Please provide the name of a funny but plausible sounding nonprofit, academic, or scientific association or organization that would sponsor research that resulted in a paper entited Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota. Respond only with the name of a fictional organization.

ChatGPT:

The Association for Quirky Sociological Studies and Research (AQSSR)

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You provide potential search keywords separated by commas. You say nothing else, and you do not chat with the user.
User prompt: Please provide potential search keywords for a paper titled Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota with an abstract of This research paper investigates the peculiar relationship between the popularity of the first name Kendall and the number of actors employed in the state of Minnesota. Utilizing data from the US Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a correlation coefficient of 0.8377399 with a significance level of p < 0.01 was discovered for the time period spanning from 2003 to 2022.
The study found that as the popularity of the name Kendall increased, so did the number of actors in the land of 10,000 lakes. This intriguing correlation raises the question: does the name Kendall possess some charismatic allure that draws individuals to the performing arts, or is it merely a whimsical coincidence? In any case, it seems that the state of Minnesota holds a special place in the hearts of individuals bearing the moniker Kendall. Perhaps we could say that the name Kendall is "act"ually quite influential!

ChatGPT:

popularity of the name Kendall, number of actors in Minnesota, correlation coefficient, US Social Security Administration data, Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Kendall and performing arts, name influence on career choices, Minnesota performers, name popularity and demographics

*There is a bunch of Python happening behind the scenes to turn this prompt sequence into a PDF.

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Data details

Popularity of the first name Kendall
Detailed data title: Babies of all sexes born in the US named Kendall
Source: US Social Security Administration
See what else correlates with Popularity of the first name Kendall

The number of actors in Minnesota
Detailed data title: BLS estimate of actors in Minnesota
Source: Bureau of Larbor Statistics
See what else correlates with The number of actors in Minnesota

Correlation r = 0.8377399 (Pearson correlation coefficient)
Correlation is a measure of how much the variables move together. If it is 0.99, when one goes up the other goes up. If it is 0.02, the connection is very weak or non-existent. If it is -0.99, then when one goes up the other goes down. If it is 1.00, you probably messed up your correlation function.

r² = 0.7018081 (Coefficient of determination)
This means 70.2% of the change in the one variable (i.e., The number of actors in Minnesota) is predictable based on the change in the other (i.e., Popularity of the first name Kendall) over the 20 years from 2003 through 2022.

p < 0.01, which is statistically significant(Null hypothesis significance test)
The p-value is 4.04E-6.^Show 0.0000040439484277576540000000
The p-value is a measure of how probable it is that we would randomly find a result this extreme.^Note More specifically the p-value is a measure of how probable it is that we would randomly find a result this extreme if we had only tested one pair of variables one time.

But I am a p-villain. I absolutely did not test only one pair of variables one time. I correlated hundreds of millions of pairs of variables. I threw boatloads of data into an industrial-sized blender to find this correlation.

Who is going to stop me? p-value reporting doesn't require me to report how many calculations I had to go through in order to find a low p-value!
On average, you will find a correaltion as strong as 0.84 in 0.000404% of random cases. Said differently, if you correlated 247,283 random variables^Note You don't actually need 247 thousand variables to find a correlation like this one. I don't have that many variables in my database. You can also correlate variables that are not independent. I do this a lot.

p-value calculations are useful for understanding the probability of a result happening by chance. They are most useful when used to highlight the risk of a fluke outcome. For example, if you calculate a p-value of 0.30, the risk that the result is a fluke is high. It is good to know that! But there are lots of ways to get a p-value of less than 0.01, as evidenced by this project.

In this particular case, the values are so extreme as to be meaningless. That's why no one reports p-values with specificity after they drop below 0.01.

Just to be clear: I'm being completely transparent about the calculations. There is no math trickery. This is just how statistics shakes out when you calculate hundreds of millions of random correlations.
with the same 19 degrees of freedom, ^Note Degrees of freedom is a measure of how many free components we are testing. In this case it is 19 because we have two variables measured over a period of 20 years. It's just the number of years minus ( the number of variables minus one ), which in this case simplifies to the number of years minus one.
you would randomly expect to find a correlation as strong as this one.

[ 0.63, 0.93 ] 95% correlation confidence interval (using the Fisher z-transformation)
^{Read more about the confidence interval} The confidence interval is an estimate the range of the value of the correlation coefficient, using the correlation itself as an input. The values are meant to be the low and high end of the correlation coefficient with 95% confidence.

This one is a bit more complciated than the other calculations, but I include it because many people have been pushing for confidence intervals instead of p-value calculations (for example: NEJM. However, if you are dredging data, you can reliably find yourself in the 5%. That's my goal!

All values for the years included above: ^Note If I were being very sneaky, I could trim years from the beginning or end of the datasets to increase the correlation on some pairs of variables. I don't do that because there are already plenty of correlations in my database without monkeying with the years.

Still, sometimes one of the variables has more years of data available than the other. This page only shows the overlapping years. To see all the years, click on "See what else correlates with..." link above.

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Popularity of the first name Kendall (Babies born)	2676	2845	2928	2767	2642	2694	2849	2765	3004	2996	2892	2752	2498	1932	1652	1462	1412	1205	1228	1263
The number of actors in Minnesota (Actors)	550	520	530	610	420	480	640	460	470	580	630	630	460	490	210	260	420	240	110	330

Why this works

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.
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.
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.

Try it yourself

You can calculate the values on this page on your own! Try running the Python code to see the calculation results. ^{Show the steps to do this.} Step 1: Download and install Python on your computer.

Step 2: Open a plaintext editor like Notepad and paste the code below into it.

Step 3: Save the file as "calculate_correlation.py" in a place you will remember, like your desktop. Copy the file location to your clipboard. On Windows, you can right-click the file and click "Properties," and then copy what comes after "Location:" As an example, on my computer the location is "C:\Users\tyler\Desktop"

Step 4: Open a command line window. For example, by pressing start and typing "cmd" and them pressing enter.

Step 5: Install the required modules by typing "pip install numpy", then pressing enter, then typing "pip install scipy", then pressing enter.

Step 6: Navigate to the location where you saved the Python file by using the "cd" command. For example, I would type "cd C:\Users\tyler\Desktop" and push enter.

Step 7: Run the Python script by typing "python calculate_correlation.py"

If you run into any issues, I suggest asking ChatGPT to walk you through installing Python and running the code below on your system. Try this question:

"Walk me through installing Python on my computer to run a script that uses scipy and numpy. Go step-by-step and ask me to confirm before moving on. Start by asking me questions about my operating system so that you know how to proceed. Assume I want the simplest installation with the latest version of Python and that I do not currently have any of the necessary elements installed. Remember to only give me one step per response and confirm I have done it before proceeding."

# 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([2676,2845,2928,2767,2642,2694,2849,2765,3004,2996,2892,2752,2498,1932,1652,1462,1412,1205,1228,1263,])
array_2 = np.array([550,520,530,610,420,480,640,460,470,580,630,630,460,490,210,260,420,240,110,330,])
array_1_name = "Popularity of the first name Kendall"
array_2_name = "The number of actors in Minnesota"

# 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)

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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.

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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 Popularity of the first name Kendall
Line chart for only The number of actors in Minnesota
AI-generated correlation image
The spurious research paper: Kendall's Kin: Correlating the Connection between the Popularity of the Name Kendall and the Population of Performers in Minnesota

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Correlation ID: 1767 · Black Variable ID: 2285 · Red Variable ID: 9945


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