The president of a large university recently announced that the school would be switching to dorms that are all single-sex, because, he says, research shows that single-sex dorms reduce the number of student hook-ups for casual sex. He cites studies showing that, in universities that offer both same-sex and coed housing, students in coed dorms report hooking up for casual sex more often.
(a) What are the cases in the studies cited by the university president? What are the two variables being discussed? Identify each as categorical or quantitative.

(b) Which is the explanatory variable and which is the response variable?

(c) According to the second sentence, does there appear to be an association between the variables?

(d) Use the first sentence to determine whether the university president is assuming a causal relationship between the variables.
(e) Use the second sentence to determine whether the cited studies appear to be observational studies or experiments?

(f) Name a confounding variable that might be influencing the association.

(g) Can we conclude from the information in the studies that single-sex dorms reduce the number of student hook ups?

(h) What common mistake is the university president making?