Question

a study in the annals of improbable research once reported that counties with large numbers of mobile-home parks had higher rates of tornadoes than did the rest of the population. The authors conclude that mobile home parks cause tornado occurances. what is an alternative explanation for this fact?

Answer 1

This conclusion illustrates another obvious confusion of correlation with causation. Per- hapstornadoes are more frequently reported for neighborhoods with mobile home parks be- cause even avery small tornado will damage a mobile home, but tornadoes may not do damage (and thus gounreported) in a neighborhood with masonry or wood homes (the Three Little Pigs theory). Perhapspeople who have more resources are better able to choose safer locations to live in, leaving “tornadoalley” neighborhoods to mobile home residents. Tornadoes occur much more frequently in someparts of the country than in others; perhaps these areas also have a higher share of mobile homeparks.