Relation To The Ecological Fallacy
There is a relation between this subject-matter and the Ecological fallacy, described in a 1950 paper by William S. Robinson. Robinson shows that ecological correlations, where the statistical object is a group of persons (i.e. an ethnic group), does not show the same behaviour as individual correlations, where the objects of inquiry are individuals: "The relation between ecological and individual correlations which is discussed in this paper provides a definite answer as to whether ecological correlations can validly be used as substitutes for individual correlations. They cannot." (...) "(a)n ecological correlation is almost certainly not equal to its corresponding individual correlation."
Read more about this topic: Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
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