The Broadway musical Annie and the Entertainment Industry Foundation teamed up to promote arts education programs for underserved children. In an ad in the New York Times, they said, “Students in arts education programs perform better and stay in school longer.” 

a. What are the musical (Annie) and the foundation suggesting with respect to causality? 

b. How could this correlation be explained by reversing the direction of hypothesized causality? Be specific. 

c. How might a third variable account for this correlation? Be specific. Note that there are many possible “third” variables.