Question

(No response, but be sure to think about your answers to these questions!) A researcher wonders whether receiving a job offer is affected by whether an interviewee wears a red tie. The researcher used the following study design to collect data: The researcher chose five large companies in a large city and observed the tie color of all interviewees during a two week period. He also records whether the person was hired by the company. He finds that interviewees who wear red ties are more likely to be hired than interviewees who do not wear red ties. . Can the researcher conclude a cause-and-effect relationship? Explain. . Can these results be generalized to a larger population?

Answer 1

(a)

The researcher cannot conclude a cause - and - effect relationship because this experiment does not satisfy the nonspuriousness condition for cause - and - effect relationship between the 2 variables: wearing red ties and receiving a job offer. There are any factors, other than wearing red ties for receiving a job offer like educational qualifications, experience etc., and these confounding variables are not controlled in this experiment.

(b)

These results cannot be generalized to a larger population because the sample is not selected using Simple Random Sampling and thus the selected sample does not represent the population.