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Example of a Spurious Correlation: Chocolate and Nobel Prizes
An amusing illustration of a spurious correlation is a 2012 study finding a strong positive correlation () between a nation's per capita chocolate consumption and its number of Nobel laureates. Although the statistical relationship is robust, eating chocolate does not cause people to win Nobel prizes. Instead, this correlation is driven by third variables, such as a country's geographic location and wealth; European nations with higher per capita income tend to both consume more chocolate and invest more heavily in education and technology.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)
Example of a Spurious Correlation: Chocolate and Nobel Prizes
What term describes a situation where two variables appear to be directly influencing each other, but in reality, their relationship is an illusion usually caused by a confounding variable?
A researcher discovers a strong positive correlation between the number of hours students spend on social media and their reported levels of anxiety. However, further analysis reveals that a third variable—academic workload—independently increases both social media use (as a coping mechanism) and anxiety levels. In this scenario, the original correlation between social media use and anxiety is best described as a spurious correlation.