5 ms·

Am I reading this correctly from table 2 that the highest magnitude correlation is never drinking alcohol, which is a negative correlation.

yobert 2y ago
I bet this is not because alcohol is good for you in any way, but because being intelligent is related to being eager to try new things.
- theclansman 2y ago
  I knew that smoking crack meant I was smart
yobbo 2y ago
Furthermore, drinking weekly seems better than monthly. But frequency doesn't mean much unless we know amounts. For example, small amounts weekly could be benefiting social relations and regulating things like anxiety. Binging monthly might not give these benefits. Weirdly, BMI seems to have almost zero effect.
- __rito__ 2y ago
  > "BMI seems to have almost zero effect." Seeing how chubby Jon von Neumann was, this should be trivial. ;)
- brational 2y ago
  > Furthermore, drinking weekly seems better than monthly. Would seem to potentially imply more routine social activity / community.
piker 2y ago
A hunch would be that alcohol abstinence is strongly correlated with religious fundamentalism which is correlated with lower income and cognition.
- kelthuzad 2y ago
  Before we rush to conclusions and make up just-so stories, note this passage from the research: "The relationship between cognitive function and lifestyle factors such as alcohol consumption and smoking proved complex. Individuals who abstained from alcohol showed lower cognitive scores than those who consumed alcohol, conflicting with previous research[1] that has connected moderate drinking with cognitive impairment" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story [1] Topiwala A, Allan CL, Valkanova V, et al. Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline: longitudinal cohort study. BMJ 2017;357:j2353.
  - piker 2y ago
    Yes, the parent comment incorporated and was consistent with that. I.e., there's something confounding these results. It then hypothesized the confounder.
  - bell-cot 2y ago
    First Reaction: These days, less-clever folks are mostly in situations where they're lucky if they can afford food and rent. Alcohol just another out-of-reach luxury.
    - xanderlewis 2y ago
      Really? Poor people don’t drink? I guess where you live there are no homeless people.
      - bell-cot 2y ago
        Re-read the "Methods" section, on page 2 of the PDF. I'm not too familiar with the UK Biobank database, but the researchers broadly exclude anyone whose record (in the DB) did not include completion of multiple cognitive tests. And prioritized people whose data include rather comprehensive sleep & related data. Again I don't know this dataset well...but I'd really suspect that few of the UK's homeless would have passed this study's selection criteria.
mckirk 2y ago
I wonder if they tried to correct for 'exercise intensity' for that, because (fun fact), exercising regularly is negatively correlated with regularly taking all kinds of drugs -- except for alcohol, where the correlation is apparently positive [1]. [1]: https://www.outsideonline.com/health/exercise-alcohol-research/ https://www.outsideonline.com/health/exercise-alcohol-resear...

yobert 2y ago

I bet this is not because alcohol is good for you in any way, but because being intelligent is related to being eager to try new things.

theclansman 2y ago
I knew that smoking crack meant I was smart

yobbo 2y ago

Furthermore, drinking weekly seems better than monthly. But frequency doesn't mean much unless we know amounts. For example, small amounts weekly could be benefiting social relations and regulating things like anxiety. Binging monthly might not give these benefits. Weirdly, BMI seems to have almost zero effect.

__rito__ 2y ago
> "BMI seems to have almost zero effect." Seeing how chubby Jon von Neumann was, this should be trivial. ;)
brational 2y ago
> Furthermore, drinking weekly seems better than monthly. Would seem to potentially imply more routine social activity / community.

piker 2y ago

A hunch would be that alcohol abstinence is strongly correlated with religious fundamentalism which is correlated with lower income and cognition.

kelthuzad 2y ago
Before we rush to conclusions and make up just-so stories, note this passage from the research: "The relationship between cognitive function and lifestyle factors such as alcohol consumption and smoking proved complex. Individuals who abstained from alcohol showed lower cognitive scores than those who consumed alcohol, conflicting with previous research[1] that has connected moderate drinking with cognitive impairment" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story [1] Topiwala A, Allan CL, Valkanova V, et al. Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline: longitudinal cohort study. BMJ 2017;357:j2353.
- piker 2y ago
  Yes, the parent comment incorporated and was consistent with that. I.e., there's something confounding these results. It then hypothesized the confounder.
- bell-cot 2y ago
  First Reaction: These days, less-clever folks are mostly in situations where they're lucky if they can afford food and rent. Alcohol just another out-of-reach luxury.
  - xanderlewis 2y ago
    Really? Poor people don’t drink? I guess where you live there are no homeless people.
    - bell-cot 2y ago
      Re-read the "Methods" section, on page 2 of the PDF. I'm not too familiar with the UK Biobank database, but the researchers broadly exclude anyone whose record (in the DB) did not include completion of multiple cognitive tests. And prioritized people whose data include rather comprehensive sleep & related data. Again I don't know this dataset well...but I'd really suspect that few of the UK's homeless would have passed this study's selection criteria.

mckirk 2y ago

I wonder if they tried to correct for 'exercise intensity' for that, because (fun fact), exercising regularly is negatively correlated with regularly taking all kinds of drugs -- except for alcohol, where the correlation is apparently positive [1]. [1]: https://www.outsideonline.com/health/exercise-alcohol-research/ https://www.outsideonline.com/health/exercise-alcohol-resear...