A consultant conducts a study to find out if spending more hours studying leads

Question

A consultant conducts a study to find out if spending more hours studying leads to better point scoring by players on basketball teams. The consultant surveys 70 players, and notes that the 35 basketball players who claim to study the most hours per day have a higher scoring average than the 35 players who study less. Because of the study results, the coach starts requiring the players to spend more time studying. Which of the following statements is true?

A) There might potentially be a confounding variable responsible for the apparent relationship.

B) While this is a controlled experiment, the conclusion of the coach is not justified.

C) While this study may have its faults, it still does prove causation.

D) To get the athletes to study more, it might be more meaningful to have them put in more practice time on the court to increase their point averages, since higher point averages seem to be associated with more study time. E) No proper conclusion is possible without somehow introducing blinding (blind, or double-blind).

Explanation / Answer

There might potentially be a confounding variable responsible for tha apparent relationship.

Correlation does not imply Causation. Just because the two variables are highly related, it is not necessary that one might be the explanatory cause for the other.

Here, high scores might be related to more study time, but more study time might not necessarily is the cause for higher scoring average.

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