https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/butter-and-happiness?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

A blog published a story using data from the World Happiness Report. The title is "Countries with More Butter Have Happier Citizens." The writer used the following bullet-points to open his story:

Haiti and other countries with low butter supply report low life satisfaction.

The reverse is true for countries such as Germany, which score high in both categories.

As the graph [see link above] shows, a curious pattern emerges across the globe.

1. What does one dot represent on this scatterplot?

1. What kind of correlation is being represented here: positive, negative, or zero?

The writer states, "Yet as the map shows, an abundance of butter does make people happy. Or could it be a case of correlation instead of causation? In that case, something else influences both life satisfaction and the availability of butter to go up and down together."

1. In the paragraph above, the writer makes a clear causal claim. What is it?

1. After making the causal claim, the writer backs off, stating that "something else" could be associated with both life satisfaction and the availability of butter. He's talking about third variables hereor internal validity. What possible third variables might plausibly be correlated with both butter supply and life satisfaction in the world's countries? To help you consider possible third variables, zoom in on the countries that are in the lower left and upper right quadrants of the butter scatterplot. What dimension seems to separate the countries in those two quadrants?