Question

Wanda reads a research report that says that a recent study found a correlation between oatmeal and cancer: the more oatmeal a person eats, the greater the risk of being diagnosed with cancer. Wanda immediately concludes that she needs to stop eating oatmeal for breakfast. What is wrong with this conclusion

Answer 1

Answer:

The conclusion reflects the erroneous belief that a correlation establishes causality

Explanation:

The conclusion reflects the erroneous belief that a correlation establishes causality because the event where happening at the same time in which she decide to stop taking oatmeal because it correlates with cancer due to the fact that any change in one variable will cause a change in another variable, meaning one variable makes other to happen.

Because the event correlate together does not mean that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in the other variable eventhough causation indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of the other event

Therefore if an event correlate it does not imply causation based on the belief that correlation establishes causality.

Answer 2

Answer:

The thing wrong with the conclusion is that the conclusion was made without data.

Explanation:

Data from scientific researches can be group into quantitative or qualitative researches, qualitative data is one that is non-numerical, and at best organizes and characterizes, e.g, eye colors as brown, blue, yellow e.t.c, while quantitative data are numerical data.

The type of study described here is a correlation study, and correlation studies are almost always quantitative studies, hence, data should be available in the report on the exact quantity of oatmeal that puts one at risk of development of cancer. Knowledge of this, will influence decision as to what the safe dosage of oatmeal is to be taken. Therefore, Wanda's stoppage of consumption of oatmeal is made without data support, and this  is a wrong conclusion.

Secondly, scientific researches are considered accurate can be used to make decisions if they are reproducible. Wanda cannot trust the validity of a single report to make her decision, there must be at least two different researches with the same result before decisions such as this can be made.