Question

(last word) a study found that the incidence of skin cancer increases along with the amount of time people work under fluorescent light, leading some people to conclude that fluorescent lighting is a cause of skin cancer. but further analysis found that people who work in offices, where fluorescent light is common, suffer more sunburn on their vacations than other workers. the sunburns, not the fluorescent light, were the cause of the higher incidence of skin cancer. the original conclusion illustrates

Answer 1

The answer would be: confusion of correlation and causation.

Correlation doesn't always mean causation. To prove causation, you need to do an experiment to make sure that the exposure comes before the disease.

In this case, "sunburn on their vacations" is the cause of skin cancer. But it was correlated with "amount of time people work under fluorescent light", make it looks like the cause