Conceptual Meaning and Spuriousness in Ratio Correlations: The Case of Restaurant Tipping

Abstract

Ratios of one variable over another are frequently used in social psychological research in order to control for a hear relationship between the numerator and the denominator. However, the use of ratio variables can introduce spuriousness into data analyses. This article provides a description and explanation of the problem of spuriousness in ratio correlations and it illustrates this problem with research on restaurant tipping.