Consider a study that measures weekly exercise and cholesterol levels in various age groups. When we plot hours of exercise on the x-axis and cholesterol on the y-axis, as in Figure 6.6(a), we see in each age group a downward trend, indicating perhaps that exercise reduces cholesterol. On the other hand, if we use the same scatter plot but don’t segregate the data by age, as in Figure 6.6(b), then we see a pronounced upward trend, indicating that the more people exercise, the higher their cholesterol becomes. Once again we seem to have a BBG drug situation, where Exercise is the drug: it seems
...more