Consider the following news headline, \"Cigarette Smokers Make Lower College Gra
ID: 3204105 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the following news headline, "Cigarette Smokers Make Lower College Grades than Nonsmokers" The news article goes on to say that researchers at a university collected information on rate of cigarette smoking (total number of cigarettes smoked in a one month period) and the college student's current GPA for completed college courses. They found that those with higher levels of cigarette use had lower GPAs, and vice versa. What can you rightfully conclude from this? Why? Be specific about what this kind of information may indicate and mean.
Explanation / Answer
We cannot conclude that smoking causes low GPAs or vice-versa.
This is because correlation doesn't give the direction of cause-and effect, just gives the directional movement w.r.t other variable. What we can conclude from the given situation is that the 2 variables will react inveserly with each other.