In 1886, Sir Francis Galton, an English scientist, spoke about “regression toward mediocrity,” which we more charitably refer to today as regression toward the mean. The basic principle is that those...

In 1886, Sir Francis Galton, an English scientist, spoke about “regression toward mediocrity,” which we more charitably refer to today as regression toward the mean. The basic principle is that those people at the ends of any continuum (e.g., height, IQ, or musical ability) tend to have children who are closer to the mean than they are. Use the concept of r as the regression coefficient (slope) with standardized data to explain Galton’s idea.