>ASI

Any AGI will be ASI, as it will be able to perform any narrow intelligence task infinitely better than humans (think a calculator) but also know everything better than human (constant, continuous, instantaneous access to all data, internet, everything).

I'm only referring to the statistical aspect, I don't doubt that having friend helps coping with any problem in life. That actually seems so obvious that it feels absurd that anyone wants to publish a paper about it... Hence I'm not surprised the statistical méthod is rubbish.

I think in this case we're falling into the Simpson paradox, that's a don't do in data analysis, hence the conclusions are a logical fallacy.

As if the number of closer friends didn't also influenced the extent of the bullying...

A confounding variable is a variable that influences both the dependent variable and independent variable, causing a spurious association. Confounding is a causal concept, and as such, cannot be described in terms of correlations or associations. The existence of confounders is an important quantitative explanation why correlation does not imply causation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding