Question

Which of the following is the best example of correlation not being the same as causation? A. A company redesigns a production process and afterwards it takes less time to produce products. The company concludes that redesigning processes causes production efficiency gains. B. After a poorly performing quarter, a company sends out coupons in the mail and sees an increase in sales. The company concludes that sending coupons causes sales to increase. C. A company pays sales employees more for each sale and each employee starts selling more goods. The company concludes that paying employees more for a sale causes employees to sell more items. D. During an economic downturn, a company changes its computer policy to only allow purchases of windows-based laptops and see profits go down. The company concludes that windows-based laptops cause profits to go

Answer 1

Answer: D. During an economic downturn, a company changes its computer policy to only allow purchases of windows-based laptops and see profits go down. The company concludes that windows-based laptops cause profits to go down

Step-by-step explanation:

In the other options, the new activity done by the company were definite causes of the effects that followed. A more efficient production process will cause gains in productivity. Coupons will bring in more sales and paying employees more will encourage them to engage in more sales.

Concluding that a computer type causes profits to go down however in a period where the economy as a whole is buying less, is simply correlation. In an economic downturn, people are buying less goods in general. The laptops will be no exception and it is not a reflection of people's preference or lack thereof of them.