Comment by Bruce_K_britton on An Especially Elegant Evpsych Experiment · 2009-02-16T03:15:26.000Z · LW · GW

This is not an experiment at all, it is simply a correlational study, and the problems with using correlations to try to establish causal links are well known. It is hard enough to establish causation with an experimental design, in which there are at least two groups of subjects who are equal to start with, with one group exposed to some putatively causal treatment and the other not, and the result measured in terms of the effect of the treatment. All you have here is a just-so story, like Kipling's, and yet you have all these commenters buying it. The reason is that stories are very persuasive. But that doesn't mean they are true.