HIV/AIDS has devastated many different populations. Efforts to reduce the spread of the disease have often focused on sexual behavior. Many studies in Africa have presumed that awareness of high HIV rates would lead to a change in sexual behavior: the higher the prevalence of HIV, the fewer risky sexual behaviors would be observed (dependent variable). Following widespread educational efforts (independent variable), the actual change in HIV rate showed little to no change. This failure to affect the HIV rate was due to
a.) causality
b.) correlation
c.) reverse causality
d.) a spurious relationship
Answer: c.) reverse causality
FEEDBACK: Reverse causality is a common problem: initially we think A causes B, but in fact, we discover that B causes A. The dependent variable in this example was a very prevalent assumption, which in fact borne out as true in the United States: that an awareness of the prevalence of HIV would result in lower prevalence. The opposite result has led researchers to reexamine underlying ethnocentric assumptions and design new, culturally appropriate reduction efforts for different parts of the world.
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