In the News: They're Scientists, Not Logicians

[redneckgaijin]

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

After it, therefore caused by it.

Today we had not one but TWO so-called scientific studies which linked the enjoyment of violent or sexual media to violence and sexual activity in teens.

The problem with these studies is this: we have no way of knowing whether or not those who were sexual or violent in the studies would have been so without viewing the "evil" media. Not only did neither study make any controls besides adjusting for school, sports and other possible causes of the undesirable activity, the authors of the study claim that their evidence overrides the notion that the teens listened to sexually explicit music or watched wrestling because they were already inclined to be sexual or violent- rather than vice versa.

Here's the news reports on the studies:

CNN: Study: Sexy Music Triggers Teen Sex

Texas Cable News: Teens Who Watched Wrestling More Violent

Oh, and while I'm giving news: Texas Republicans are stuck with either Tom DeLay or nobody in US House district 22, Jack Abramoff bosom buddy Robert Ney gives up his re-election bid in Ohio as more info on his links to Abramoff's corrupt casino deals comes out...

... and, in the "Government Does It For Your Own Good" Department, a Minnesota massage therapist could lose her license for having sex... with her husband.

Comments

[seritaph.livejournal.com]

Ah, the joys of research. And how to horribly mutilate facts to fit the given "hypothesis." Yeah, I'm betting those are just a wee bit flawed. Funny how they're too dang chicken to tackle the ad industry.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

About that last one... shouldn't she have been aware that there was a law pertaining to this? It's the sort of thing I'd certainly think about if I were a massage therapist, given the number of "massage parlors" that have been thinly-disguised fronts for prostitution. It seems to me that when you work in a heavily-regulated field (and anything having to do with health care qualifies), it is YOUR responsibility to be up on Federal amd state laws which may affect you.