An observational study of suburban towns reveals that towns with more dedicated park land tend to have higher median home prices
. A real estate agent suggests that a town’s crime rate is a more accurate predictor of median home price. What is the confounding variable in this study?
the median home price
the crime rate
the distance from a large city
the median home size
In this scenario, the confounding variable would be the median home size. This is because this factor is both a cause and effect of the median home prices. A bigger house would obviously be worth more than a smaller house so the house size affects the prices of the homes in the market. At the same time, the median home sizes can also cause an increase or decrease in crime rates as criminals are more likely to target homes that seem as though they have more valuables inside.
