In a correlation study, an electrical company paid by city officials finds that as politicians reduce the budget for maintenance work, the less likely they are to find lucrative contracts. These results indicate _____________.
Explanation
Answer: C - In a correlation study, the less money city politicians allocate to maintenance work, the less lucrative are the contracts.
Key Takeaway: The relationship between two variables is quantified through a number that is referred to as a correlation coefficient. In the example above, as budgets decreased, so did the size of contracts. Correlations also describe positive relationships whereby if one variable increases, the second variable increases too. Finally, a correlation between two variables can be negative with an opposite relationship; for example, as one variable increases, the second variable decreases.
