"People think the correlation is trivial," may well be the most sensible reaction to such studies. The relation of a condom to a veneral disease is a logical and phyiscal one easy to understand. Likewise with lead poisoning, while asbestos fibres are actually found at the seat of abestosis (when carefully examined - post mortem).
As for second hand smoke it is reasonable to doubt that the evidence has ever been all that strong, but then again tabacco tar is a well established carcinognic substance so the causual relationship makes this probable.
No let me see, watching TV and social violence. Mmmh, perhaps the causual relationship is not so strong?
Correlations are wonderful things, sometimes they give clues, but by themselves without strong causual connections what do we actually have?
And they wonder why such studies have such a bad reputation, consider the correlation between watching more than 3 hours a day of quality TV (if you can find any) and intellectual improvement - not only would it be high but the causual relationship would be fairly obvious as well.
Now I bet the amount of TV watched and volient behaviour is even more strongly correlated when the frequency and length of advertising breaks are included - the more voilent being exposed to a quantum level of more ads, for more products more often (and surrounding these poorly written, acted and produced programs).
Lets try one more, the amount of TV watched during the day, I would assume this would correlate quite well with voilence in the US amongst males and correspond even more strongly with the percentage of unemployment and part-time employment as well amongst subjects.
Then of course we could take in the more absurd correlations possible, the correlations between, say, star signs and serial murders - I have no idea what it would show but, given the small numbers of serial murders against the general population some star signs will be loaded with killers.
Sorry, I have not read the study, perhaps there is more to it than most, but I doubt it.
I still remember my participation in THC trial, where we we introduced to a series of co-ordination tasks while straight, then were asked to do them again after taking capsules of THC (my dose was rather good). Of course those that got the good stuff, rather than the plecebo, did rather badly at the tests. From this it was concluded that dope and driving were a big no-no (ie lacking co-ordination) which the government adopted as proof of the evils of the drug.
However, after the test, each of us then got into our cars and drove off without a problem, co-ordination with new tasks and reflex actions not being the same thing (I got lost but drove safely home, eventually).
The quasi-science of psychology rarely comes up with anything non-ideological, its experiments running from interesting to absurd, but hardly ever conclusive on anything important. If some causal relationship is being sensibly argued and the "tests" show that there is some practical relationship in a meaningful way then that would be a different thing, if however the causual relationship is something along the lines of "me see violence, me do violence" then I reserve my right to be more than a little dismissive.
What such nastly little research projects will lead to is obvious, the necessary dramatic violence, the informative and critical portrayal of violence will disappear. We will sit down to watch "Shindler's List" and wonder what the death camp victims are complaining about, and it will be a much shorter film, about a man who had a factory during the war and employed people wearing stripped clothes, and Disney will no-doubt bring out an animated musical version with dancing guards in snazzy black uniforms.
--- Message Received --- From: "Chris Kromm" <ckromm at mindspring.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>, <pcanetwork at mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 01:04:14 -0500 Subject: Study: Watching TV Increases Teen, Adult Aggression
Quote: "People think the correlation is trivial," said Brad Bushman, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University at Ames. But "the correlation between violent media and aggression is larger than the effect that wearing a condom has on decreasing the risk of HIV. It's larger than the correlation between exposure to lead and decreased IQ levels in kids. It's larger than the effects of exposure to asbestos. It's larger than the effect of second-hand smoke on cancer."
Study: Watching TV Increases Teen, Adult Aggression
By Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 28, 2002; 2:32 PM
Watching three or more hours of television a day greatly increases the risk that adolescents and young adults will become violent, according to a major new study released today.
The risk of violence appears to progressively increase with exposure to violent programming, according to the study, which involved following 700 young people over a 16-year period.
The study is the most comprehensive to date about the effects of television violence on teens and those in their 20s and shows for the first time that the effects of TV violence are not limited to children, but persist well into adulthood.
"People think the correlation is trivial," said Brad Bushman, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University at Ames. But "the correlation between violent media and aggression is larger than the effect that wearing a condom has on decreasing the risk of HIV. It's larger than the correlation between exposure to lead and decreased IQ levels in kids. It's larger than the effects of exposure to asbestos. It's larger than the effect of second-hand smoke on cancer."
Television proponents said the jury is still out on the effects of violent programs, and that a new ratings system and V-chip technology allowed viewers to block out violent programs.
Among youths who watched less than an hour of television daily at age 14, just 5.7 percent were involved in aggressive acts by the ages of 16 to 22, the study, in Friday's issue of the journal Science, found.
For those who watched between one and three hours, the aggression rate jumped to 22.5 percent, and the rate was 28.8 percent for those who watched more than three hours, the study found.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.