Practice question · Select all that apply
Which statements about the ecological fallacy are correct?
Hints
- Three of these describe the error and its origin; one draws a conclusion far stronger than the error warrants.
- Aggregate data answer aggregate questions perfectly well.
Show the answer
- B. It is the error of inferring something about individuals from data aggregated over areas
- C. A positive correlation between two variables across districts can coexist with a negative one between the same variables across individuals
- D. It was named by W. S. Robinson in 1950 from an analysis of literacy and nativity in the United States
Why
Robinson’s original example had literacy correlating with the foreign-born share across states while foreign-born individuals were on average less literate, because immigrants settled in states with better schools. The fallacy is about the level of inference, not about the quality of the data: district-level questions can be answered from district-level data without any error at all.
Practise Analysing Social Processes
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