A Researcher Finds That the Number of Murders Committed During

question 112

Multiple Choice

A researcher finds that the number of murders committed during a summer is correlated with the number of ice cream cones consumed. However, they realize that there is a third variable problem related to this finding. What might this problem be?

• A) It's possible that people eat more ice cream to console themselves about news that murder is being committed, rather than murder being committed as a result of ice cream sales.
• B) High temperatures might be causing both greater ice cream sales and more aggressive acts of violence.
• C) Victims of murder cannot be randomly assigned to a condition.
• D) The number of murders committed in an area might not only be causing more ice cream sales, but also more toy sales.

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Definitions:

Mean

The arithmetic average of a set of values, or distribution, calculated by summing the values and then dividing by the number of values.

Standard Normal

A special case of the normal distribution with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one, commonly used in z-score calculations.

Area

An evaluation of the area covered by a shape or surface in two dimensions, calculated in units².

Area

In statistics, often refers to the region under the curve of a probability distribution representing the probability of a range of outcomes.