Ice-cream sales and drowning cases rise together. The best explanation is:

  1. ice-cream causes drowning
  2. drowning causes ice-cream sales
  3. a third variable – hot weather – affects both
  4. the data is wrong
Answer

C) a third variable – hot weather – affects both

Hot weather is a confounding variable; correlation is not causation. SLO CS-11-D-02

Computer Science MCQ · More Unit 4: Data and Analysis MCQs · Practise