The distinction between correlation and causation is important because their relationship creates the ultimate base for critical thinking. Human minds work in a way that makes us search for mechanisms, consistent patterns, sequences, and regularities and then build assumptions. Such judgments are mainly generalizations founded on statistical data which helps us predict the future based on past experiences in several cases, but is not true in all of the situations. This means that each situation is individual and unique, and should not be evaluated based on assumptions. Instead, each case should be tested and researched objectively and a generalization should not be made without proper proof. The issue is that this proof is only available in such fields as Science, Physics, or Mechanics, while in History, Sociology or Philosophy it is impossible to collect enough data to completely exclude possibilities of all causes leaving just one to be true. This way, a certain level of generalization is always present.
As a researcher, to make a study maximally objective and at the same time provide valid research, I would collect as much data as possible to prove my assumptions. Besides, since generalization and seeming causality based on correlation is often used as a basis for framing in politics and journalism I would be very careful making statements and drawing conclusions. An objective researcher is to prove the connections and always mention that even though there are certain regularities, the particular statistical data do not determine the causality between the two happenings with a 100 percent guarantee. In such a study data analysis and statistics should include both the patterns that prove causality and the ones that work against it. Only in this case, the study is fair and unbiased.
Avoiding unfounded assumptions is vital for a highly qualified researcher working in any field. Observation of the correlation between various happenings is necessary, yet it does not allow the researchers to state that the correlated phenomena are in a causal relationship. An unbiased study provides the data and makes conclusions only to a certain extent.