Question

a serious study once found that people with two cars can live longer than people who only own one car. owning theee cars is even better and so on. there is a substantial postive correlation between number of cars owned x and length of life y. does the number of cars owned cause one to live longer? what is the causing this postive association??

Answer 1

According to the study, there is a substantial positive correlation between the number of cars owned, x and the length of life, y. The correlation between the variables does not describe the causation between them because obtained association can be due to some other third variable.

The positive association can be explained by considering the factor wealth or the income. The more an individual is wealthy, the more cars they can afford. Also, the wealthy people tend to live more as they can better take care of themselves and can afford better medical care and facilities. The cars cannot be said a related factor.