Ecological Inference

Ecological inference is a method used to draw conclusions about individual behaviors or characteristics based on group data. For example, if we know the overall voting patterns of a neighborhood, ecological inference helps estimate how different demographic groups within that area might have voted, even if individual votes are not directly observed. It’s useful in social sciences to analyze large datasets where only aggregate information is available, helping researchers make informed guesses about individual-level patterns while accounting for the limitations of group-level data.