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The article seems to argue that healthy relationships CAUSE physical health. How do you actually prove that the relationship between the two attributes is caus
by smallgovt 9y ago
The article seems to argue that healthy relationships CAUSE physical health.
How do you actually prove that the relationship between the two attributes is causal versus correlated?
For example, one could conclude, instead, that being in good physical health is the cause of successful relationships.
- mobilefriendly 9y agoThis may be particularly true in romantic relationships.
- yosito 9y agoIt may also be particularly false in romantic relationships. Have you met my ex?
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoWhen you buy a Kia and it breaks it's "unreliable". When you buy a Ferrari and it breaks it's "temperamental" or "quirky". A Toyota may cost a pretty penny and be more reliable than the Kia but the Ferrari looks much better in your garage and is much more fun to take for a spin.
- ARCarr 9y agoThe original post said "healthy" relationships.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ck425 9y agoI can't find a link but there was an article here recently where researchers had concluded strong relationships contributed to better self control and thus had a knock on effect on health.
- door 9y agothis isn't really a useful point. social sciences necessarily rely on this kind of research because you can't do a controlled trial on people's long-term behaviors really.
- reckoner2 9y agoIt is tough, if not impossible to know for sure in cases like these. The most effective way is the use of controlled studies. The population is split such that the only difference between the groups is one variable. The very simplified version is that sometimes you find that there is only evidence for a correlation (between say relationships and good health), and other times you can find evidence for causation. In this case it looks like they found the later.