A friendly reminder that when all the variables are measured, causal claims aren't supportable. Photo credit: Sleeping: MicrostockAsia/Deposit Photos CNN's headline was "sleep this way to add 5 years to your life." This headline should immediately kick in your "correlation is not causation" spidey-sense. a) What makes this headline causal? b) What are the two …
Continue reading Really? “Sleep this way to add 5 years to your life”
Can the study support a causal claim that a vegetarian diet leads to depression? Credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock A journalist for the foodie magazine Bon Appetit reported on an empirical article that found a correlation between type of diet and level of depression: A new study found that people who excluded meat from their diets had twice …
According to the study, which personality trait is associated with upbeat, danceable music? Credit: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock This splashy heading from Inc.com reads: Here's what your taste in music says about your personality, according to a huge new study. whether you like Mozart or metal really does reveal something about your personality, new research finds This …
Continue reading What your taste in music says about your personality
An example of politically polarized health outcomes occurred during the pandemic. Democratic-led areas were more likely to pass masking and lockdown mandates, and these areas later had lower COVID death rates compared to Republican-led areas.Photo credit: MikeEdwards/Depositphotos The American political system is polarized--increasingly so in the last few decades. Such polarization has gridlocked national politics …
Continue reading Life expectancy gap in different U.S. counties
The study evaluated both victims and defendants in criminal cases. Compared to white victims, the media were much less likely to depict photos of Black victims of crime with family or friends. How might this choice impact people's empathy for Black pain and suffering? Credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a human-rights organization …
What do the studies suggest about why people procrastinate? Photo credit: Timothy Hodgkinson/Shutterstock The BBC magazine, Science Focus, collected a set of studies on procrastination that might help students at the beginning of a new school year. The journalist opens with a couple of simple frequency claims. [If you procrastinate,] you’re not alone: an estimated …
Photo credit: Dangubic/Deposit Photos Here's a link to CNN's coverage of a study on alcohol use and gray matter in the brain. The headline reads, "Drinking any amount of alcohol causes damage to the brain, study finds." Let's consider how well the study supports the causal claim the journalist (or the editor) attached to it. …
Continue reading Claim: “Drinking any amount of alcohol causes damage to the brain”
Do the studies really support cause and effect? And are those effects "huge"? Photo: Julia_Tim/Deposit Photos This Buzzfeed headline is eyecatching and dramatic: Instagram Has Some Pretty Huge Effects On Our Psychology. Here's Everything We Know So Far. I see two important issues to interrogate in this headline. First, it's a causal claim ("Instagram has …
People might start musical training early because they are living in musical families or show early evidence of musical talent. Photo credit: Artem Furman, Alamy stock photo What accounts for musicality? Some people are highly skilled and accomplished musicians, while others express no aptitude. A recent correlational study tried to understand why some people are …
Continue reading Musical skill: Why does an early start seem to help?
Wearing masks is associated with lower rates of COVID-19 symptoms.Photo: Syda Productions/Shutterstock Here is an article that amplifies Chapter 8 concepts. Using U.S. states as the unit of analysis, it depicts the correlation between mask-wearing and rates of knowing a person with COVID. Please scroll to the middle of this article from the Washington Post …
Continue reading State scatterplot: Mask mandates and COVID cases