An article in a women's magazine says that women who choose to nurse their babies feel warmer and more receptive toward the infa
nts than mothers who bottle-feed. The author concludes that nursing has desirable effects on the mother's attitude toward the child. Explain why asserting a cause-and-effect relationship based on this information is suspect, and give another plausible explanation for the association between the decision to bottle-feed or nurse and mothers’ attitudes toward their children.
Asserting a <em>cause - and - effect </em><em>relation</em><em>ship</em> with highlycorrelated variables may sometimes be misleading due to the presence of a possible lurking or confounding variable.
Lurking variables cause unintended or spurious association between correlated variables. In the scenario described, a possible confounding variable may be weariness or Fatigue which whereby the mother finds it easier to bottle feed as they have become psychologically disturbed and are prone to be more receptive during these period.
Hence, fatigue is a possible lurking variable in this scenario.
