Question

Based on a survey conducted on the DietSmart.com website, investigators concluded that women who regularly watched Oprah were only one-seventh as likely to crave fattening foods as those who watched other daytime talk shows (San Luis Obispo Tribune, October 14,2000 ). a. Is it reasonable to conclude that watching Oprah causes a decrease in cravings for fattening foods? Explain. b. Is it reasonable to generalize the results of this survey to all women in the United States? To all women who watch daytime talk shows? Explain why or why not.

Short answer

a. No, it's not reasonable to conclude that watching Oprah causes a decrease in cravings for fattening foods based on the given data. b. Also, without details on the sample used in this study, it's not reasonable to generalize this finding to all women in the U.S. or to all women who watch daytime talk shows.

Step-by-step solution

Determining the Causal Relationship

To determine if there is a causal relationship between watching Oprah and decreased craving for fattening foods, simply establish if there was an experiment conducted where one group watched Oprah while a control group did not. However, the exercise does not provide this information, hence causality cannot be established based only on this observation.

Analyze the Generalizability of Results

To determine if the results can be generalized to all women in the United States or to all women who watch daytime talk shows, it’s necessary to know how representative the sample in the study was. If a wide variety of women from different backgrounds, ages, regions, etc., were included in the study, it would be more convincing to generalize the findings. Again, without these details, it is imprudent to generalize the results of this survey.

Final Assessment

Summarize the findings from steps 1 and 2: Firstly, it's not reasonable to conclude that watching Oprah causes a decrease in cravings for fattening foods as the given information doesn't allow the establishment of causality. Secondly, without knowledge on the representativeness of the sample, the results cannot be generalized to all women in the United States or to all women who watch daytime talk shows.