Question

As the AIDS epidemic spread, the number of sexual partners reported by homosexual males in the United States dropped dramatically. However, there was no similar change in the number of partners for single African males.   Do you think education is always enough to prevent the spread of AIDS?

Answer 1

The fall in number of sexual partners reported by homosexual males in the United States as compared to African due to the spread AIDS might be because education. However, higher education levels and a sharp drop in partners in United states as compared to Africa only implies correlation.

Correlation DOES not imply causation. So even if these two events might be correlated to each other in the sense that higher education is negatively correlated to the number of sexual partners it does not imply that higher education leads to less number of sexual partners. Such a claim cannot be made.

Whether a high level of education leads to lower number of sexual partners can only be concluded after we test for the effect of education on the no. of sexual partners controlling for all the other factors that could possibly explain no. of sexual partners