Pol 51 Slide 6

What is a fundamental feature of observational data?

Subjects assign themselves to groups

Why is comparison essential in making inferences?

It helps isolate the effect of interest

What is an example of selection on the dependent variable

Studying only vaccinated individuals when analyzing vaccine outcomes

What is one issue with doctors only seeing sick patients?

They may wrongly infer causal relationships

What does Robert Pape’s research potentially suffer from?

Selection on the dependent variable

Why is descriptive representation important to political science?

It increases turnout among underrepresented groups

What is a confounder in observational data?

A variable associated with both treatment and outcome

What must you do when experiments are not possible?

Be a critical consumer of data

Which question helps detect selection bias?

Are we selecting only on one outcome?

What is the danger of making inferences without a valid comparison group?

Spurious conclusions