4 ms·

Eating prison for also associated. Correlation does not equal causation.

PeterStuer 7y ago
"The researchers made no claims on the physiological, mechanistic relationship of how exposure to pollution leads someone to become more aggressive; their results only show a strong correlative relationship between such crimes and levels of air pollution. The researchers were careful to correct for other possible explanations, including weather, heat waves, precipitation, or more general, county-specific confounding factors." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191003114007.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191003114007.h...
- 2_listerine_pls 7y ago
  What about city activity with pollution? more activity -> more pollution -> more crime more activity -> more crime
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- johnfactorial 7y ago
  > their results only show a strong correlative relationship The paper's abstract says "The results suggest that a 10% reduction in daily PM2.5 and ozone could save $1.4 billion in crime costs per year, a previously overlooked cost associated with pollution." In my opinion this is a statement of a causal relationship, not merely a correlation. I wonder why they didn't reverse that relationship, too, and propose that violent crime increases pollution. I would love to read the actual paper, but it's only available to people with money.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    "Suggest and could" are different than "indicate and will".
    - johnfactorial 7y ago
      This is probably the nuance I'm missing.
  - csallen 7y ago
    > I wonder why they didn't reverse that relationship, too, and propose that violent crime increases pollution. Probably because you can easily rule out that possibility using common sense, whereas causation in the other direction is at least thinkable and worth investigating further.
  - adenadel 7y ago
    If you attended a university and still have an email address associated with it you can probably use the library to access many academic articles.
navigatesol 7y ago
>Correlation does not equal causation Say what? You should write these scientists and explain, I'm sure they've never heard of this concept!
- TallGuyShort 7y ago
  Given some of the other statements they made, they've at least forgotten it. Most of us often forget.
- rockinghigh 7y ago
  I’m also surprised by how many people use this meme to dismiss any research. It’s not like researchers just use the Pearson coefficient.

"The researchers made no claims on the physiological, mechanistic relationship of how exposure to pollution leads someone to become more aggressive; their results only show a strong correlative relationship between such crimes and levels of air pollution. The researchers were careful to correct for other possible explanations, including weather, heat waves, precipitation, or more general, county-specific confounding factors." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191003114007.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191003114007.h...

2_listerine_pls 7y ago
What about city activity with pollution? more activity -> more pollution -> more crime more activity -> more crime
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
johnfactorial 7y ago
> their results only show a strong correlative relationship The paper's abstract says "The results suggest that a 10% reduction in daily PM2.5 and ozone could save $1.4 billion in crime costs per year, a previously overlooked cost associated with pollution." In my opinion this is a statement of a causal relationship, not merely a correlation. I wonder why they didn't reverse that relationship, too, and propose that violent crime increases pollution. I would love to read the actual paper, but it's only available to people with money.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  "Suggest and could" are different than "indicate and will".
  - johnfactorial 7y ago
    This is probably the nuance I'm missing.
- csallen 7y ago
  > I wonder why they didn't reverse that relationship, too, and propose that violent crime increases pollution. Probably because you can easily rule out that possibility using common sense, whereas causation in the other direction is at least thinkable and worth investigating further.
- adenadel 7y ago
  If you attended a university and still have an email address associated with it you can probably use the library to access many academic articles.

navigatesol 7y ago

>Correlation does not equal causation Say what? You should write these scientists and explain, I'm sure they've never heard of this concept!

TallGuyShort 7y ago
Given some of the other statements they made, they've at least forgotten it. Most of us often forget.
rockinghigh 7y ago
I’m also surprised by how many people use this meme to dismiss any research. It’s not like researchers just use the Pearson coefficient.