When asked if there are more ice cream cones sold in November or July, Mary answers "July" immediately. She is surprised to find out that there is little to no difference between the two months in terms of ice cream cone sales. Mary's error is most clearly an example of ___________________.
A) imaginary correlation
B) common sense
C) superstitions
D) illusory correlation

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Mary's error is an example of illusory correlation, which is the perception of a relationship between two variables that does not actually exist. In this case, Mary has a belief that July is a month when more ice cream cones are sold, despite there being no empirical evidence to support this belief.

When Asked If There Are More Ice Cream Cones Sold