Post hoc

Practicalphilosophypsychologysystems

Etymology

Short for the Latin "post hoc ergo propter hoc," "after this, therefore because of this." The phrase names the leap from sequence to causation. Its brevity mirrors the mistake — the mere "after" is treated as if it were "because."

  1. noun phrase · /pohst-HOK/

    Assuming that because one event followed another, the first caused the second.

    What it names

    Spotting it guards against reading cause into what is only coincidence in time.

    Example

    "I wore my lucky socks and we won, so the socks did it" is post hoc reasoning.

    Related idea

    Its sibling cum hoc infers cause from things happening together rather than one after the other.

See also

CausationCum hocFalse causeIllusory CorrelationNon sequiturRegression to the Mean