Question

What’s Wrong? In Exercises 25–28, identify what is wrong.

Motorcycles and Sour Cream: In recent years, there has been a strong correlation between per capita consumption of sour cream and the numbers of motorcycle riders killed in noncollision accidents. Therefore, consumption of sour cream causes motorcycle fatalities.

Short answer

Correlation cannot assure the cause of the relationship.

Step-by-step solution

Given information

Two variables are strongly correlated:

• Per capita consumption of sour cream
• Motorcycle riders killed in non-collision accidents

Correlation interpretation

Two strongly correlated variables show a very strong linear pattern of association. Thus, the slope of the line that describes the relationship between two variables has a steep measurement.

Identifying the wrong element in the survey

If one variable is correlated with another, it does not guarantee that one can cause changes in the other.

In the study, it is known that consumption of sour cream is strongly related to non-collision accidents. However, it does not imply that consumption of sour cream causes motorcycle fatalities.