Distractor pattern P3. The passage may note that "higher education spending and economic growth appeared simultaneously in the data." A distractor transforms this into "education spending caused economic growth." The passage established co-occurrence, not causation. Watch for causal language: caused, led to, resulted in, produced, triggered.

• Flag any causal claim in an option: "caused," "led to," "resulted in"
• Check: does the passage establish causation or merely correlation/co-occurrence?
• Temporal sequence (X happened before Y) does not prove causation
• Correlation language in the passage: "associated with," "correlated," "appeared alongside"

Passage: "Countries with higher renewable energy adoption also report lower carbon emissions." Trap: "Renewable energy adoption reduces carbon emissions." The passage states a correlation, not a mechanism.