Question

PLEASE HELP! Need answers ASAP. Thank you!

1.For each of 200 randomly selected cities, Gary recorded the number of churches in the
city (x) and the number of homicides in the past decade (y). He calculated the linear
correlation coefficient and was surprised to find a strong positive linear correlation for
the two variables. Does this suggest that building new churches causes an increase in
the number of homicides? Why do you think that a strong positive linear correlation
coefficient was obtained? Explain your answer with reference to the term lurking
variable.

Answer 1

A strong positive linear correlation coefficient between the number of churches and the number of homicides does not imply causation. There might be a lurking variable that affects both variables, such as population size.

Step-by-step explanation:

A strong positive linear correlation coefficient between the number of churches in a city and the number of homicides does not suggest that building new churches causes an increase in homicides. Correlation does not imply causation, which means that a statistical relationship between two variables does not prove that one variable directly causes the other. In this case, there might be a lurking variable, which is a third variable that affects both the number of churches and the number of homicides. For example, a city with a larger population might have more churches and also more incidents of crime, resulting in a strong positive correlation between the two variables.