Non causa pro causa

The cause or causes is/are incorrectly identified. In other words, it is a fallacy of reaching a conclusion that one thing caused another, simply because they are regularly associated.

Questionable cause can be logically reduced to: "A is regularly associated with B; therefore, A causes B."

If you want to prove something wrong, find something that it appears to cause, and then prove that the caused thing is wrong. You can also do the reverse to show something to be right.

Examples:

1. I pulled on the string and the kite fell to ground. Pulling on the string is therefore ineffective.
2. Loud music leads to deafness. Turn that music down!
3. Eating sweets makes you happy. You should eat sweets.

This works because attention is distracted from the (incorrect) assumption that X causes Y to the question of whether or not X is right or wrong (which usually cannot be questioned).

When presented with cause and effect, it often seems to make sense simply because of the assertion of causality. This results in people accepting invalid causal arguments.