Question

Correlation. One study showed that for a recent period of 11 years, there was a strong correlation (or association) between the numbers of people who drowned in swimming pools and the amounts of power generated by nuclear power plants (based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Energy). Does this imply that increasing power from nuclear power plants is the cause of more deaths in swimming pools? Why or why not?

Short answer

If there is a correlation between two variables, it may not imply that one causes the other.

Step-by-step solution

Given information

Two variables show a strong correlation:

• The counts for the individuals who drowned in the pools
• The amount of power a nuclear plant generates

Explain if the increasing power from nuclear plants causes more deaths in a pool.

No, the increasing power in nuclear plants is not the cause of death by drowning in a swimming pool.

A strong correlation means that the recorded data for the two variables has a statistically strong value of correlation coefficient, which is close to ‑1 or 1.

However, a strong correlation between two variables does not imply that one variable causes the other to happen because correlation does not imply causation. This is because the relationship in such cases may not be direct, and there might be some lurking variables that may cause the strong relationship.