"As soon as a mayor announced his/her 'get tough on crime' policy on New Year's day, criminals got scared and the crime rate went down." Suppose that the lower crime rate was actually caused by freezing cold temperatures in January ⎯ it was just too cold for anybody to be out robbing other people. Which fundamental hazard of the economic way of thinking did the mayor make?
A) believing that what's good for one person is good for the whole group (the fallacy of composition)
B) failing to take into account the benefits of crime (the payoff fallacy)
C) believing that association is the same as causation
D) failing to understand the difference between positive and normative economics.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The mayor made the fundamental hazard of believing that association is the same as causation. The crime rate may have gone down at the same time as the announcement, but it was not necessarily caused by the announcement. In this case, the lower crime rate was due to the cold temperatures, not the policy announcement.

"As Soon as a Mayor Announced His/her 'Get Tough on Crime