Big Data and the Pitfalls of Spurious Correlations

In Spain, it is estimated that around 68% of industrial companies are considered “digital novices” or “digital followers,” indicating that they have not yet fully adopted digitalization in their businesses and need to do so to improve their competitiveness. When analyzing large datasets, there is a warning about the danger of finding spurious correlations, where variables may appear to be related without any real sense or where a third variable might be influencing the results. Therefore, it is crucial to interpret data with caution, remembering that correlation does not imply causation, and to be aware of how graphs and visualizations are constructed to avoid incorrect conclusions.