In the original study of regression toward the mean, sir francis galton noted a tendency for offspring of both tall and short parents to drift toward the mean height for offspring and referred to this tendency as "regression toward mediocrity." what is wrong with the conclusion that eventually all heights will be close to their mean?

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Social Studies

Highbeam

5 August, 23:11

In the original study of regression toward the mean, sir francis galton noted a tendency for offspring of both tall and short parents to drift toward the mean height for offspring and referred to this tendency as "regression toward mediocrity." what is wrong with the conclusion that eventually all heights will be close to their mean?

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Jillian Herring · Answer 1

The big problem with this conclusion in which eventually the height will be really near to their mean is the fact that it could imply that short and tall offspring will come together as only one mean height. However, this does not take into account the element of luck, which is part of the regression toward the mean.