A survey finds people who take more sick days report worse health. Classify the direction 'worse health \(\to~\) more sick days' as plausible reverse causation and state whether 'sick days \(\to~\) worse health' is established.
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What this problem is really about
Time order is a necessary test for causation: a proposed cause must occur before its effect. If the supposed outcome can precede and influence the supposed cause, the reverse direction becomes plausible and weakens the forward story, though observational timing alone still does not prove the reverse explanation.
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