Data Quality and Modes of Marriage: Some Holocultural Evidence of Systematic Errors

Abstract

This paper reviews the problem of data quality in global correlational studies and suggests that control variables investigating potential sources of systematic error help researchers avoid reporting spurious correlations. The technique is applied in a study of the substantive correlates of societal organization and mode of marriage. Test results indicate that one category of the Ethnographic Atlas has links with quality related traits. Suggestions are made regarding quality control procedures, problems, and interpretations. [Accepted for publication: November 1975.]