“Kievit et al. (2013). Simpson’s paradox in psychological science: A practical guide.” - Article summary

Simpson’s paradox states that the direction of an association at the population-level may be reversed within subgroups of that population. Inadequate attention to the Simpson’s paradox may lead to faulty inferences. The Simpson’s paradox can arise because of differences in proportions on subgroup levels compared to population levels. It also states that a pattern (association) does not need to hold within a subgroup.

The paradox is related to a lot of things, including causal inference. A generalized conclusion (e.g. extraversion causes party-going) might hold for the general population, but does not mean that this inference can be drawn at the individual level. A correlation across the population does not need to hold in an individual over time.

In order to deal with Simpson’s paradox, the situations in which the paradox occurs frequently have to be assessed. There are several steps in preventing Simpson’s paradox:

  1. Consider when it occurs.
  2. Explicitly propose a mechanism, determining at which level it is presumed to operate.
  3. Assess whether the explanatory level of data collection aligns with the explanatory level of the proposed mechanism.
  4. Conduct an experiment to assess the association between variables.

In the absence of strong top-down knowledge, people are more likely to make false inferences based on Simpson’s paradox.

Image

Access: 
Public

Image

Join WorldSupporter!
This content is used in:

Scientific & Statistical Reasoning – Summary interim exam 3 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

Scientific & Statistical Reasoning – Article summary (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

Search a summary

Image

 

 

Contributions: posts

Help other WorldSupporters with additions, improvements and tips

Add new contribution

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

Image

Spotlight: topics

Check the related and most recent topics and summaries:
Institutions, jobs and organizations:
Activities abroad, study fields and working areas:
This content is also used in .....

Image

Check how to use summaries on WorldSupporter.org

Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams

How and why use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?

  • For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
  • For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
  • For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
  • For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
  • For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.

Using and finding summaries, notes and practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter

There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.

  1. Use the summaries home pages for your study or field of study
  2. Use the check and search pages for summaries and study aids by field of study, subject or faculty
  3. Use and follow your (study) organization
    • by using your own student organization as a starting point, and continuing to follow it, easily discover which study materials are relevant to you
    • this option is only available through partner organizations
  4. Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
  5. Use the menu above each page to go to the main theme pages for summaries
    • Theme pages can be found for international studies as well as Dutch studies

Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?

Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance

Main summaries home pages:

Main study fields:

Main study fields NL:

Follow the author: JesperN
Work for WorldSupporter

Image

JoHo can really use your help!  Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world

Working for JoHo as a student in Leyden

Parttime werken voor JoHo

Statistics
1780