Study shows a correlation that doesn't hold true for you in particular... therefore BULLSHIT!!11!1!!

[Silent3]

Christ on a fucking crutch, why, why WHY is getting plenty of this stupid reaction always so damned predictable?

When a study says people who have/do/experience X more often have/do/experience Y, that's not a RULE that X invariably leads to Y, it's certainly seldom put forth as if it were such a rule, and these kinds of studies are NOT denials that X can happen without Y plenty of times.

There is certainly no good reason to assume, knowing absolutely nothing else but the stated statistical correlation, that somehow no one would never even mention a correlation between X and Y unless they had some agenda to promote X and/or Y. Even people who are anti-X and anti-Y might have damn good reasons to want to explain and learn about correlations that they might consider troubling.

Imagine a study that says men are more likely to cheat on taxes with women. That study isn't telling you that all men are tax cheats. Knowing a woman who cheated on her taxes in not a disproof of that study that turns the whole study into bullshit.

[Lex]

1. Yes, but correlation isn't causation either.

I see a lot of stuff posted that there is a correlation between X and Y, but that doesn't mean X causes Y. A common mistake.

[Silent3]

6. No, correlation certainly isn't causation. The standard angry internet reaction isn't a matter of...

...a clear-headed netizen pointing out that out that correlation is not causation, however, it much more likely to be a matter of an idiot reading into a study a claim of causation that isn't there, then getting pissed at this creation of their own imagination.

Of course, sometimes bad second-hand reporting of statistical studies by poor science writers is at the root of correlation/causation confusion.

[me b zola]

2. A righteous rant that I myself have wanted to write

When I write about the ill effects of relinquishment of a newborn both on the mother and child, people pop up to say, "thats not my experience, so therefore it cannot be true". I'm tired of providing links to studies on a subject that is sadly under studied, only for those who do not wish to hear to say that isn't their experience.

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. A-Freaking-Men!

[Warpy]

3. Whenever you post about a statistical norm

all the outliers start to wail in unison.

I'd like to clap their heads repeatedly between a couple of statistics textbooks. I know they'll never read them, but I might knock them out and shut them up for a few minutes of peace.

[VanillaRhapsody]

5. Warpy....I like your name....and I like the way you think...but I think I know how you

got that name!

[Warpy]

7. No, you don't.

[VanillaRhapsody]

8. Okay...but I am still chuckling over your visual imagery....good job!

[ancianita]

9. This is an argument mistakenly used by people unschooled in statistics and probability.

Don't be impatient with them.

Two classes all adults should be required to have passed with a B or better in this country: civics and statistics. Just sayin'.

[Scuba]

10. Because they think "data" is the plural of "anecdote".