Bell Correlations and Selection Bias
Abstract
Methods of selecting samples from larger populations may produce bias, in either direction: inducing correlations between variables independent in the full population, or masking correlations between variables dependent in the full population. Here we propose a surprising application of these familiar ideas. We argue that they are relevant to puzzling correlations uncovered in quantum theory by John Stewart Bell (Bell 1964). In the light of Bell's work and subsequent experiments it is widely believed that the quantum world is 'nonlocal', in apparent tension with relativity. Many hold that the only alternative is to abandon 'realism', the view that there is an objective world independent of measurement. We propose instead that Bell's correlations are selection artefacts, in tension neither with relativity nor realism. In standard two-particle Bell experiments the relevant selection is a preselection, achieved by the preparation of the initial state. Again, selection bias via preselection is familiar elsewhere in science, but it doesn't seem to have been noticed that it is applicable in this case.
Related
- Classical records and Bell correlations in a dynamically formed quantum body
- Violation of Bell-type Inequality in the Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) Toy-Model: Quantum Correlations beyond Local-Realism
- Experimental certification of multipartite Bell correlations using only few-body symmetric correlations
- Detectability of Post-Quantum Correlations in Symmetry-Restricted Bell Scenarios
- Information Causality Characterizes the Set of Quantum Correlations in the Simplest Bell Scenario
BibTeX
@misc{price2026bell,
title = {{Bell Correlations and Selection Bias}},
author = {Huw Price},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.00406},
eprint = {2605.00406},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.00406},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Bell Correlations and Selection Bias
AU - Huw Price
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.00406
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.00406
AB - Methods of selecting samples from larger populations may produce bias, in either direction: inducing correlations between variables independent in the full population, or masking correlations between variables dependent in the full population. Here we propose a surprising application of these familiar ideas. We argue that they are relevant to puzzling correlations uncovered in quantum theory by John Stewart Bell (Bell 1964). In the light of Bell's work and subsequent experiments it is widely believed that the quantum world is 'nonlocal', in apparent tension with relativity. Many hold that the only alternative is to abandon 'realism', the view that there is an objective world independent of measurement. We propose instead that Bell's correlations are selection artefacts, in tension neither with relativity nor realism. In standard two-particle Bell experiments the relevant selection is a preselection, achieved by the preparation of the initial state. Again, selection bias via preselection is familiar elsewhere in science, but it doesn't seem to have been noticed that it is applicable in this case.
ER -