Problem-Solving and Data AnalysisHardIdentifying a confounding factor
Problem-Solving and Data Analysis practice question
A study finds that towns with more coffee shops have higher average incomes. Which of the following is the most reasonable explanation for the association?
- A. Coffee shops tend to open where residents already have money to spend, so income drives the number of shops rather than the reverse.Correct
- B. Drinking coffee raises people's incomes.
- C. Coffee shops pay unusually high wages.
- D. The association is impossible.
Answer: A. Coffee shops tend to open where residents already have money to spend, so income drives the number of shops rather than the reverse.
Income plausibly causes the shops, not the other way round.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. Drinking coffee raises people's incomes.
- No plausible mechanism.
- C. Coffee shops pay unusually high wages.
- Coffee-shop wages are not high enough to raise a town's average income.
- D. The association is impossible.
- The association was observed; it needs explaining, not denying.
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