In a recent round of lay-offs in a company, the percent of employees 50 and olde

Question

In a recent round of lay-offs in a company, the percent of employees 50 and older who were laid off was much higher than the percent younger than 50 who were laid off. However, when the data were analyzed separately in each job category, the percent of employees 50 and older who were laid off was lower than the percent of employees younger than 50 laid off in each job category. This reversal of direction of the association between age and being laid off, when job category is taken into account, is called:

a.a residual plot

. b.least-squares regression

c.Simpson's paradox

d.negative association

Explanation / Answer

In a recent round of lay-offs in a company, the percent of employees 50 and older who were laid off was much higher than the percent younger than 50 who were laid off. However, when the data were analyzed separately in each job category, the percent of employees 50 and older who were laid off was lower than the percent of employees younger than 50 laid off in each job category. This reversal of direction of the association between age and being laid off, when job category is taken into account, is called:

a.a residual plot

. b.least-squares regression

c.Simpson's paradox

d.negative association

Simpson’s paradox says that when we combine all of the groups together, and look at the data in aggregate form, the correlation that we noticed before may reverse itself. This is most often due to lurking variables that have not been considered, but sometimes it is due to the numerical values of the data.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.