Question

Dinesh notices that many people with gym memberships are overweight. He concludes that gym memberships make people gain weight. What is the error in Dinesh's confusion as it relates to correlation or causality?

1) Dinesh has mistaken a negative correlation for a positive one.
2) Dinesh has the causation backward.
3) Dinesh has mistaken association for causation.
4) Dinesh has mistakenly inferred a common cause.

Answer 1

Dinesh has mistaken association for causation in his conclusion about gym memberships and weight gain.

Step-by-step explanation:

Dinesh's confusion is that he has mistaken association for causation. Just because Dinesh has noticed that many people with gym memberships are overweight, he concludes that gym memberships make people gain weight.

However, there could be other factors at play, such as dietary habits or genetics, that contribute to the overweight individuals having gym memberships. Dinesh has not considered the possibility of a common cause or other confounding factors.