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It seems there's a misunderstanding. According to me you are actually pointing to the same logical fallacy. The systematic error is indeed to think that correla

It seems there's a misunderstanding. According to me you are actually pointing to the same logical fallacy. The systematic error is indeed to think that correlation does imply causality. There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does.

gnode 7y ago
Indeed. Thanks for putting this more succinctly than I did. I'd add that it's easier to observe the logical fallacy in the case of being male, because half of people are male, and being male is obvious. The occurrence of the PFC abnormality is much smaller, and we don't tend to see people's brains, so it's much harder to point to the counterexamples.
tempguy9999 7y ago
> think that correlation does imply causality You know, despite the trope sometimes it does. Does it here? From wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy>: Blair, a researcher who pioneered research into psychopathic tendencies stated, “With regard to psychopathy, we have clear indications regarding why the pathology gives rise to the emotional and behavioral disturbance and important insights into the neural systems implicated in this pathology”. From the same wiki article Researchers have linked head injuries with psychopathy and violence. Since the 1980s, scientists have associated traumatic brain injury, such as damage to the prefrontal cortex, including the orbitofrontal cortex, with psychopathic behavior and a deficient ability to make morally and socially acceptable decisions, a condition that has been termed "acquired sociopathy", or "pseudopsychopathy".[72] Individuals with damage to the area of the prefrontal cortex known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex show remarkable similarities to diagnosed psychopathic individuals, displaying reduced autonomic response to emotional stimuli, deficits in aversive conditioning, similar preferences in moral and economic decision making, and diminished empathy and social emotions like guilt or shame > There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does. It seems experts think otherwise.

gnode 7y ago

Indeed. Thanks for putting this more succinctly than I did. I'd add that it's easier to observe the logical fallacy in the case of being male, because half of people are male, and being male is obvious. The occurrence of the PFC abnormality is much smaller, and we don't tend to see people's brains, so it's much harder to point to the counterexamples.

tempguy9999 7y ago

> think that correlation does imply causality You know, despite the trope sometimes it does. Does it here? From wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy>: Blair, a researcher who pioneered research into psychopathic tendencies stated, “With regard to psychopathy, we have clear indications regarding why the pathology gives rise to the emotional and behavioral disturbance and important insights into the neural systems implicated in this pathology”. From the same wiki article Researchers have linked head injuries with psychopathy and violence. Since the 1980s, scientists have associated traumatic brain injury, such as damage to the prefrontal cortex, including the orbitofrontal cortex, with psychopathic behavior and a deficient ability to make morally and socially acceptable decisions, a condition that has been termed "acquired sociopathy", or "pseudopsychopathy".[72] Individuals with damage to the area of the prefrontal cortex known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex show remarkable similarities to diagnosed psychopathic individuals, displaying reduced autonomic response to emotional stimuli, deficits in aversive conditioning, similar preferences in moral and economic decision making, and diminished empathy and social emotions like guilt or shame > There's no more reason to think prefontal cortex anomaly causes psychopathy than being male does. It seems experts think otherwise.