11 ms·

“Associated with” would have been a stronger claim than “probable cause of”.

• simplotek 4y ago
  "probable cause" means the same thing as "associated with", but establishes a specific hypothesis and stresses the fact that it is yet to be verified.
  • byyyy 4y ago
    No. Causation is different from correlation. "Associated with" means correlation, "probable cause" means causation. Causation is the stronger statement here. While technically association is a prerequisite for causation (correlation doesn't imply causation but causation implies correlation) probable "cause" is too strong of a term here because the experiment didn't actually do a causative test. "Possible cause" might be better here because the title heavily implies a causative study was done. Do note that in science nothing can be proven so in actuality probable cause is really the highest form of verification that can be made. That is the claim in the title.
• fsckboy 4y ago
  > “Associated with” would have been a stronger claim in English, "stronger claim" has a meaning ambiguous between "the claim is strongly defendable, i.e. more likely to be true", and "what is being claimed is of more powerful effect". I think here the claim they are trying to point out is the powerful effect, to say "this should be pursued, its importance is elevated by its potential strong causal/explanatory effect"