Dr. Fletcher is interested in whether joining a fraternity/sorority causes people to become more concerned about their attractiveness and appearance. He recruits a group of 55 freshmen (25 males, 30 females) who are planning to go through fraternity/sorority recruitment on his campus. After they join, he gives them a measure of attractiveness concern/appearance concern (the Body Concern Scale).
If Dr. Fletcher is interested in a causal relationship between joining a fraternity/sorority and attractiveness/appearance concern, why doesn't he conduct a true experiment?
A)It is not possible to study private organizations, like fraternities/sororities.
B)It is not possible to measure body concern.
C)He was unable to recruit an equal number of males and females.
D)He was unable to randomly assign participants to join a fraternity/sorority.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In order to establish a causal relationship, Dr. Fletcher would need to randomly assign participants to either join a fraternity/sorority or not. However, he was unable to do so, which means he cannot infer causality. The other options are not relevant to the issue at hand.

Dr Fletcher Is Interested in Whether Joining a Fraternity/sorority Causes