Sequential coincidence is routinely mistaken for causation.

Evidence

The fallacy under the name post hoc ergo propter hoc is similar: because one event follows another, the first must be the cause of the second. “After I took Arnica D30, the fever went down.” The fever could have gone down all by itself because that is the usual course of the disease or because another medicine was taken. “Just now I was thinking about my aunt, and she calls me! I must have anticipated this.” Not considered here is how often one thought of the aunt without her picking up the phone. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 160

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates post hoc ergo propter hoc with concrete homeopathy and coincidence examples.
• XREF: Connects directly to the homeopathy theme that frames the whole chapter.

Related

• Inferring causation merely from temporal sequence is the post hoc fallacy. (similarity 0.82)
• A single observed sequence may be arbitrary coincidence (similarity 0.81)