Question

You determine there is a regression. Can you immediately claim that one certain way?

a. No, you must first decide if the relationship is positive or negative.
b. No, the correlation would need to be a perfect linear relationship to be sure.
c. Yes, a strong linear relationship implies causation between the two variables.
d. No, you should examine the situation to identify lurking variables that may be influencing both variables

Answer 1

d. No, you should examine the situation to identify lurking variables that may be influencing both variables

Explanation:

Hello!

Finding out that there is a regression between two variables is not enough to claim that there is a causation relationship between the two of them. First you have to test if other factors are affecting the response variable, if so, you have to control them or test how much effect they have. Once you controled all other lurking variables you need to design an experiment, where only the response and explanatory variables are left uncontroled, to learn if there is a regression and its strenght.

If after the experiment, you find that there is a significally strog relationship between the variables, then you can imply causation between the two of them.

I hope it helps!