find the error Researchers in Florida found a negative correlation between shark
ID: 3053909 • Letter: F
Question
find the error Researchers in Florida found a negative correlation between shark attacks and bikini sales; the number of shark attacks decreases as bikini sales decrease. Researchers believe that this correlation is driven by a third variable, i.e., the number of people at the beach during the summer, and decide to conduct a point-biserial correlation to account for this. This analysis yields a Pearson coefficient of r = 0.02. From these findings, the researchers can conclude that wearing a bikini does not cause shark attacks when beach-going is controlled for
Explanation / Answer
Mistake 1: Negative correlation means if one variable increases then other variable decreases.
Mistake:2
From correlation we cannot comment on causality. All we can say is whether the two variables are independent or dependent. But we cannot say which is the cause and which is the effect.
In the above example, we can say that there is no relastionship between shark attacks and bikini sales.
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