[ExI] quora

[William Flynn Wallace]

similar example:  the number of churches and the number of bars is very
highly correlated

On Sat, Feb 8, 2020 at 6:51 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

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> *From:* extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> *On Behalf
> Of *William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
> *Subject:* [ExI] quora
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> What is the best example of someone using statistics to prove a point,
> even if the point was wrong?
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> I got this question on Quora and thought that I would love to get examples
> from group members if you have good one or two.  The funnier and more
> ridiculous the better.
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> bill w
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> There is one from my childhood which really got a lot of traction:
> telephone poles cause lung cancer.  In those days, the poles were made of
> creosote infused pine.  The correlation coefficient was way the hell up
> there, way higher than the coefficient between lung cancer cases and
> smoking.  That convinced a lot of people that the poles were somehow
> causing the cancer, even though it was later shown that the correlation was
> even higher if the poles were made of steel.
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> Those of us who understood the formula for correlation coefficient quickly
> realized that the increased number of lung cancer cases in a particular
> area and the corresponding number of local telephone poles rise in lock
> step because both are caused by increasing numbers of local lungs.
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> spike
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