Analytically Speaking

To Explain or Predict? That Is the Question

With Galit Shmueli

In her highly acclaimed paper, To Explain or to Predict?, Galit Shmueli writes “statistical modeling is a powerful tool for developing and testing theories by way of causal explanation, prediction, and description.” But while it is common to conflate explanation and prediction, understanding the distinction is crucial.

In this video:
  • Four important tensions between explaining and predicting.
  • Information quality.
  • Hacking data mining for causality.
  • How to spark student curiosity in statistics.
  • What is behavioral big data?