question archive A few random results for you to ponder
A few random results for you to ponder
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A few random results for you to ponder...do the results justify the conclusions? Why or why not? Pick one or two statements and comment.
In the NFL, teams win more often when they score 13 points than when they score 14. Thus, scoring points is bad.
Often when people use regression analysis to estimate the effect of police officers or police spending on crime, they find that cities with larger police forces/budgets have higher crime rates. Therefore, police cause crime.
As ice cream sales increase, so do drowning deaths. Thus, ice cream causes people to drown.
Studies find that students who drink more tend to have lower grades. Therefore, drinking leads to poor student performance.
Over the past 300 years, there has been a decrease in the number of pirates on the high seas, along with an increase in average global temperatures. Thus, the reduction in piracy has led to global warming.
Did you know there is a health benefit to winning an Oscar? Doctors at Harvard Medical School say that a study of actors and actresses shows that winners live, on average, for four years more than losers. And winning directors live longer than non-winners.
Children who come further down in the birth order have, on average, lower IQs than those born earlier in the birth order (e.g. First born children vs. 5th born children). Therefore birth order determines intelligence.
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Often when people use regression analysis to estimate the effect of police officers or police spending on crime, they find that cities with larger police forces/budgets have higher crime rates. Therefore, police cause crime.
1)Regression analysis tells us whether the two are related. It cannot tell whether A cause B (causation). If we are going by the conclusion of this statement, one can easily say that crime causes increased police presence. This means that the study drew two completely opposite conclusions. If the goal is to estimate the effect of police officers or police spending on crime, regression analysis is not the test to use as it only measures correlation.
As ice cream sales increase, so do drowning deaths. Thus, ice cream causes people to drown.
2)This linear relationship between ice cream sales and drowning deaths implies only a correlation. This statement ignores a third factor that could affect the conclusion, the weather. When the weather is hot, people are more likely to buy ice cream and go swimming. This means that while ice cream sales and drowning deaths are related to each other (and to the weather), the increase of one is not cause by the increase of the other.
